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Question of the day

Tuesday, Jul 2, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* They totally missed the news here

All-American Rejects will play the DuQuoin State Fair on Saturday, August 24.

Fair officials made the announcement Monday.

The pop rock band best known for songs “Swing Swing” and “Move Along” joins a mostly country lineup featuring Wynonna Judd, Shenandoah, and Restless Heart.

OK, now scroll through the fair’s lineup on the WSIL TV website. Here’s the Tuesday show

Tuesday, August 27: Shenandoah and Restless Heart

Here’s the Tuesday lineup as of June 17th

Tuesday, Aug. 27: Confederate Railroad, Shenandoah and Restless Heart. Confederate Railroad has been a hit-making force in Southern rock since the 1990s, with two releases going platinum in the ’90s.

I checked and was told the state canceled Confederate Railroad’s contract.

Last month, I asked you whether you thought booking a band named Confederate Railroad, which has Confederate battle flags on the cover of its latest album, for a show in Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, at a state-owned facility was appropriate.

* The Question: Is canceling this show appropriate? Make sure to explain your answer.

  69 Comments      


Let’s all pitch in to help Wordslinger’s daughter finish college

Tuesday, Jul 2, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* As I told you yesterday, Wordslinger’s family had requested donations to “members of the Oxnevad family, to be put towards continuing higher education.”

Word’s daughter Emma is attending DePaul to become a journalist and is doing a summer internship at the Sun-Times. I reached out to her yesterday to ask her to set up a GoFundMe page so we could help defray her costs.

Here is her message

Hi, all!

My name is Emma Oxnevad, and I’m Karl’s—or as you knew him, Wordslinger’s—daughter. My family and I read through the outpour of love and admiration you all had for my dad and his work and it touched us all. I have countless memories of my dad sitting at a computer, typing away on Capitol Fax, and it would have meant the world to him to see how much you all admired his wit, perspective, and humor. He was one of a kind, and you all saw that.

When speaking with Rich Miller, he suggested the idea of a GoFundMe in order to help put me through my last two years of college. I’m a journalism student at DePaul—I guess the apple doesn’t fall too far—and given the sudden nature of my father’s passing, paying for school is becoming even more daunting than before.

I am not one to ask for favors from strangers, nor am I one to ask for people’s hard-earned money for my own benefit. However, my dad always made sure that my financial aid at school was covered and up-to-date, and I know he would want to make sure that I would have some security stored away for the time I have left in school.

Any amount is appreciated, as are the beautiful tributes you all left for my dad and his work. He understood the power of words and conversation, and he would be absolutely floored by the love in this thread.

Thank you all very much and keep up the discourse.

-Emma

Emma’s goal is $10,000, which I suggested. I will match the first $2,500, but that will still only get us half way. So, I’m asking you to dig as deep as you possibly can on this one.

As has been obvious over the past couple of days, Wordslinger meant a lot to everyone who spent any time at all on this website. Let’s pay it forward. Please, click here.

…Adding… I just received a call from someone who would like to remain anonymous. We have another donor who will match the first $2,500 raised on Emma’s GoFundMe site. Pretty cool.

  42 Comments      


Dude, I have the receipts

Tuesday, Jul 2, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Greg Baise in Crain’s

The plaudits J.B. Pritzker received from a smattering of observers following the recent legislative session was the kind of attention for which most politicians only dream.

Is it any surprise with supermajorities in the General Assembly that he and the Democrats passed a lot of legislation? Of course, one might argue the bar was set pretty low given his predecessor’s preference for choosing fights over accomplishments.

One must wonder, as the new fiscal year begins today, if voters are as receptive to the governor’s version of “thinking big” as much as Springfield insiders and some members of the press.

That “smattering” included the organization he ran for years, the Illinois Manufacturers Association. From a Friday press release…

“Manufacturers need a modern infrastructure system to compete in today’s global economy and this capital infrastructure program builds a bridge to the future. We applaud Gov. JB Pritzker and lawmakers for making this game-changing investment in our infrastructure that improves Illinois’ economic competitiveness,” said Mark Denzler, president & CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association. “Infrastructure creates jobs and allows for safer families, faster commutes and the efficient movement of people and products around the world. Rebuild Illinois also funds important career and technical education programs to help address the skills gap and workforce challenge facing manufacturers across Illinois.”

And while he’s distancing himself from Bruce Rauner now, Baise’s organization endorsed him in 2014 and 2018.

Also, he was one of the most connected “Springfield insiders” of them all for decades. I mean, his Springfield roommate was Speaker Madigan’s best friend. Now he’s supposedly an outsider? Please.

* To the meat of his argument

But Pritzker wants to spend even more.

Enter the Blank Check Amendment.

The governor doesn’t like that term—but sometimes the truth is hard to accept.

How else would you define removing the ceiling on our tax rate to give the politicians in Springfield the freedom to raise rates on whatever “class” they decide to target if incoming revenues don’t match their ferocious appetite for spending?

Kind of sounds like they’re getting a blank check.

As I’ve said before, I do believe that this constitutional amendment will eventually allow the General Assembly to raise taxes on upper income folks without dinging the middle-income and lower-income folks. I don’t think the question is “if,” but “when.”

  43 Comments      


*** UPDATED x1 *** Cannabis roundup

Tuesday, Jul 2, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Round Peg in Square Center

The state’s agriculture department is working to get the regulatory framework up and running for the adult-use recreational cannabis law.

After Gov. J.B. Pritzker enacted the measure last week, legal sales of recreational cannabis for adults 21 and older are expected to begin Jan. 1. But first, the rules and framework for recreational sales need to be completed.

Illinois Department of Agriculture Director John Sullivan said state officials want to make sure there’s plenty of product for when retail sales begin.

“We’re going to be overseeing and regulating the growing, the processing, the craft grow and the transportation,” Sullivan said. “Big role, a lot of responsibility.”

To do all of that, he said the department needs more people.

“Getting people in place is really going to be one of our first steps, because it’s going to take more manpower to do that,” Sullivan said. “So we’re reviewing that to make sure we’ve got the proper staff there.”

* But will there be shortages?

To start, only the existing medical cannabis businesses will be allowed to cultivate, produce and dispense cannabis. On the retail level, that means 55 existing stores will have to meet the demands of a 13 million-person state with a massive tourist population. Each of these existing operators will be allowed to open a second store, but the realities of real estate site selection, permitting and build out means that none will likely open before adult-use sales begin on Jan. 1, 2020, and most won’t come online until mid 2020.

But the biggest problem will be the lack of production capacity in the state. Illinois currently has a small medical cannabis program, with a current patient population of around 70,000, when compared to most states. The state has issued 19 production licenses, controlled by fifteen businesses (including my own company, 4Front, which operates a cultivation facility in Elk Grove Village) to cultivate and produce cannabis for the state’s dispensaries. These businesses will all be allowed to transition to serve the adult-use wholesale market in time for sales to begin on January 1.

The immediate problem is that these businesses have built a physical production infrastructure designed to meet the demands of a 70,000-person medical market. They are nowhere near equipped to meet the market demand for 13 million residents and 58 million annual tourists to Chicago alone.

* The demand is obviously there

Days after the Illinois legislature voted to legalize recreational cannabis, Nature’s Treatment of Illinois, a medical marijuana dispensary in Milan, had a problem: People kept showing up at their store wanting to buy weed.

The bill had not yet been signed into law by Gov J.B. Pritzker — that wouldn’t happen until late June. But the deluge of foot traffic forced employees to put up a door sign that recreational marijuana was not yet for sale.

* The New York Times

And while low-level marijuana charges have plummeted, the racial divide in drug arrests has persisted. State numbers show that African-Americans in Colorado were still being arrested on marijuana charges at nearly twice the rate of white people.

But that statistic was offered without any sort of context. For instance, this is from the Colorado Independent

In 2017, roughly one in 28 adult black men in Colorado was in prison. Put another way, African Americans made up 18 percent of the prison population and only 4 percent of the state’s adult population, an incarceration rate that was seven times higher than the rate for white Coloradans.

* Rep. Villanueva talked about her mom during last week’s press conference. She was being treated in a Catholic hospital, which wouldn’t sign off on access to medical cannabis

Rep. Celina Villanueva’s mother was diagnosed with cancer last August. Her mother, who is undergoing chemotherapy, expressed interest in using medical cannabis for pain management, but hasn’t been able to participate because she wasn’t able to find a doctor at the facility where she receives treatment to sign off, Villanueva said.

“She’s one of many people throughout this state and one of many people throughout this country that could not find relief within the cannabis program,” said Villanueva, one of the sponsors of the recreational cannabis bill. “And that’s something that I carry with me every single day. I did this for her. And for those people that unfortunately fall outside of that program that don’t want to be on opioids in order to help the symptoms of their diseases.”

* If I was the king, towns would have to hold a referendum before opting out to prevent the set in their ways types from doing this

Recreational marijuana businesses won’t be allowed in Morton.

After a brief discussion, Village Board members voted unanimously Monday to ban recreational marijuana growers, cultivation centers, and dispensing, processing and transporting facilities that could have set up shop in Morton after the passage last week of a new law legalizing recreational marijuana within Illinois.

“This is the tip of the spear,” village attorney Pat McGrath told board members. “I’ll be bringing more ordinances to you before Jan. 1, 2020, that deal with other issues caused by the state law, like public possession of marijuana.”

* The Sun-Times has an occasional tendency to shift into tabloid-style “Reefer Madness” reporting and this piece is a good example of that

The law legalizing the recreational use of marijuana beginning Jan. 1 provides an exemption to the Smoke-Free Illinois Act that banned smoking at workplaces and most public places because of the health threat of secondhand smoke. A similar exemption already was in place for cigar lounges.

That means smoking once again could become commonplace at public places in Illinois, according to the law’s chief sponsor — but only of marijuana, not tobacco, which remains largely banned at workplaces and businesses.

Surprised to hear that, health advocates say allowing more smoking of any kind in indoor public places is a bad idea.

“This is a step backwards for the health of the people of Illinois,” says Kathy Drea, head of advocacy for the American Lung Association in Illinois.

Um, no. I also talked with the bill’s chief sponsor and she said the language was designed to allow for cigar bar type establishments. Local governments could, in theory, allow weed smoking in other places like bars. But nobody believed that would happen here and it was discussed during the House debate.

* The Sun-Times also profiled Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago)

As for legalizing pot, Cassidy said the restorative and social justice aspects of the massive cannabis bill are what brought her to the measure. But she has an “open mind” when it comes to using marijuana. Cassidy said she “looks forward to the day when it’s not a novelty question” — “nobody asks me if I drink wine.”

She also celebrated legalization by getting a tattoo just days ago: a cartoon of a paper bill waving hi. It features marijuana leaves and a sash that reads “bill.”

Here’s the little guy…

Caption?

*** UPDATE *** Sen. McClure…

Hi Rich,

I was just looking at your blog and noticed that it linked to a recent story on smoking marijuana in public from the Chicago Sun-Times. I spent quite a bit of time explaining to the Sun-Times on Friday afternoon that their analysis of the bill was incorrect. Instead of discussing my analysis of the bill in the story, they chose to quote me in a very misleading way. They did not allow for any of my analysis of the bill. I called and expressed my unhappiness with the Sun-Times this morning, and asked them to print the following response which I wrote last night:

    I am writing in response to Tom Schuba’s recent article about smoking marijuana in bars, restaurants, movie theaters, and other public places. His story quoted me out of context and failed to mention my assertion that the new recreational marijuana law will not allow people to smoke marijuana in such places. The law in question is the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (HB 1438).

    The Act states in Section 10-35(a)(3)(F) that it “does not permit” the use of cannabis “in any public place.” Additionally, it does not permit smoking cannabis “in any place where smoking is prohibited under the Smoke Free Illinois Act” (Section 10-35(a)(4)). Much later in the Act, it states that “[a] unit of local government…may regulate the on-premises consumption of cannabis at or in a cannabis business establishment within its jurisdiction in a manner consistent with this Act. A cannabis business establishment or other entity authorized or permitted by a unit of local government to allow on-site consumption shall not be deemed a public place within the meaning of the Smoke Free Illinois Act” (Section 55-25(3)). A “cannabis business establishment” is defined as a “cultivation center, craft grower, processing organization, dispensing organization, or transporting organization.” The intent of that language is to allow local governments to approve smoke shop dispensaries where customers can sample cannabis and purchase it in the store like customers do at cigar shops.

    The language does not permit marijuana use in any bar, restaurant, or movie theater. Why? Because none of these locations by themselves meet the definition of a “cannabis business establishment.” The law only authorizes local governments to regulate the on-site consumption of cannabis at cannabis business establishments, and it does not allow local governments to regulate the on-site use of cannabis at other facilities.

    Smoking marijuana is not just banned in places where smoking is prohibited under the Smoke Free Illinois Act. The law also does not permit the consumption of marijuana “in any public place.” That is independent from the reference to a public place within the meaning of the Smoke Free Illinois Act. This is the language that we voted on in the Illinois State Senate, and this is what will take effect next year. People will not be allowed to use marijuana at bars, restaurants, or movie theaters.

    State Senator Steve McClure (R-Springfield)

* Related…

* Here’s what legal pot means for your local dope dealer: “It’s good until you get arrested,” he says.

* Barickman: Safeguards in place for recreational marijuana

* Bloomington-Normal Smoke Shops Prepare For Legal Marijuana

  28 Comments      


New casino towns heap praise on governor

Tuesday, Jul 2, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* He’s having a heck of a week and it’s only Tuesday. WIFR TV

Illinois. Gov. JB Pritzker says he’s on a mission to help Rockford “beat Beloit” in a tight race to build a casino.

Pritzker and Lt. Gov.Juliana Stratton joined Rockford-area lawmakers for a news conference on authorization of a casino license in Rockford.

Pritzker says the casino could generate hundreds of million dollars from across the state.

Right across the border, Ho-Chunk Nation is waiting on the Bureau of Indian Affairs to approve bringing a casino to Beloit.

Rep. Maurice West (D-Rockford) said the city is operating on a 24-48 month timeline to get the casino in Rockford.

* Northern Public Radio

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker visited Rockford Monday morning to mark the start of the process toward building a new casino in the area.

Organizers handed out playing cards and poker chips that read “J.B. Bet On Us” and “Our Governor Is Aces.” A bill he signed last week allows for 6 new casinos statewide, mostly in cities near the Illinois border. Pritzker said casino revenue is a key component of his capital plan:

“This additional revenue helps ease some of the pressure on escalating property taxes,” he said, “and most importantly, we’re going to do everything possible to help Rockford beat Beloit and attract casino-goers from across the border.”

* WTVO

According to Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara, the city alone could get anywhere from $4 to $8 million. The casino would also create some 600 construction jobs and over 1000 jobs just at the casino.

“This means jobs for families in our community. This means revenue to the city,” said McNamara. “So, we can not burden people with property taxes. This is a good deal.”

* Rockford Register-Star

“From the first time we met, we had a number of asks outlined on behalf of the city of Rockford,” [Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara] said. “I am here to say that every single one of those, he delivered on.”

* WREX TV

“I can tell you as a Republican, we have never had an opportunity where a governor stepped up, saw there was gridlock going on, and got people in to the room and made the case that we need to get this done,” [Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford] said. “The urgency of getting this done this year, and with the governor’s help we were finally able to get this done. We have an opportunity to bring those people back home and bring more back home.”

* Lake County News-Sun

Gov. J.B. Pritzker received standing ovations and many thanks at Waukegan City Hall Monday as he tours the state highlighting his Rebuild Illinois Capital and Transportation programs that will benefit Lake County.

One of the bigger prizes was a casino license for Waukegan.

State Sen. Terry Link, D-Indian Creek, a former Waukegan resident, joked about how he has “in my spare time for the last 20 years, I’ve been working on a bill. I just kept misspelling some words and they’d cancel it. We’d do a few other things, and they’d cancel it,” he said, drawing laughter. […]

Under the capital program, money is earmarked for the following Lake County projects: $61 million for interchange construction at Routes 176 and 41 in Lake Bluff and North Chicago; $58.7 million for reconstruction and widening of State Route 22 in Kildeer and Long Grove; $45 million for stabilization of the Adeline Geo-Karis Illinois Beach State Park shoreline; $26.7 million for a new classroom building at the College of Lake County; $1.7 million for dredging on the Chain O’Lakes; $3.5 million for capital improvements at Rosalind Franklin University in North Chicago; and $1 million for renovations to North Chicago High School, according to the governor’s office.

* Sun-Times

At a news conference alongside Pritzker on Monday touting the capital bill, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she wants the city casino to open “as soon as possible.

“Obviously we’ll be involved in the process,” Lightfoot said of the study. “I’m hoping we can get it done relatively soon, so we can start the process.” […]

A Chicago casino has eluded city officials as a potential cash cow since at least 1992, when former Mayor Richard M. Daley first floated a proposal. Link noted that Rivers Casino in Des Plaines, the state’s most profitable gaming site, pulled in more than $440 million last year.

“And [Chicago’s casino] will be much more profitable than that,” the senator said.

* Tribune

Lightfoot, Pritzker and transit leaders appeared together at a news conference to discuss spending projects under the plan.

One of the projects planned for the Chicago area is the $561 million reconstruction of Interstate 190, the westernmost leg of the Kennedy Expressway, from Bessie Coleman Drive to Interstate 90. The project, which will include the addition of auxiliary lanes, is intended to improve safety and access to the expanding airport, according to the state.

Another $72.6 million will go toward improvements to 38 bridges on the Kennedy from the Edens Expressway to Hubbard Street, the state said.

Other big area road projects include $1 billion for the expansion of Interstate 80 in Will County, which will involve the replacement of two deteriorated bridges over the Des Plaines River in Joliet. The Illinois Department of Transportation also plans to spend $92 million to rebuild the intersection of 95th Street and Stony Island Avenue, which will include reconstruction of railroad bridges, plus bicycle and pedestrian improvements.

“Pardon our dust in the next few years while we rebuild Illinois,” said Omer Osman, the state’s acting secretary of transportation.

* He’s in southern Illinois today

Governor JB Pritzker is scheduled to visit southern Illinois Tuesday.

The governor is making stops at Walker’s Bluff and at Laborers Local 773 in Marion to tout the recently passed Rebuild Illinois package.

Part of that package was the expansion of gambling in Illinois. It allows for more sports betting, video gaming expansion, and six new casinos, one of which will be at Walker’s Bluff.

  12 Comments      


Pritzker’s sweet ride

Tuesday, Jul 2, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Not sure of the news value of this, but here’s the Tribune

When Gov. J.B. Pritzker was caught speeding on Geneva Lake in Wisconsin last month, he was driving a sleek, custom-built wooden speedboat that’s among the most expensive on the lake. […]

The boat Pritzker was driving is a brown, 28.7-foot wooden craft built in 2010 by Van Dam Custom Boats, a luxury wooden boat maker based in Boyne City, Michigan, according to a copy of the June 7 warning Pritzker received and the boat’s Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources recreational vehicle information report, documents obtained by the Tribune. […]

The Don Don model is described on the Van Dam website as a “contemporary boat with exotic automotive style,” built with “mahogany milled from a single log” and a stainless steel steering wheel, and able to reach speeds of more than 60 mph.

Brian Jahns, a sales executive at Gage Marine on Williams Bay, who has sold wooden boats in Lake Geneva for 27 years, said the Don Don is “ultrarare.”

  48 Comments      


*** UPDATED x1 *** Spooking the markets

Tuesday, Jul 2, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* I’d wager that this is just exactly the sort of overreaction that the plaintiffs may have been hoping for. Yet another misleading piece from Bloomberg

Joe Mysak, Bloomberg News’s foremost expert on the $3.8 trillion municipal-bond market, has a saying about Puerto Rico: It was technically “in” the market for state and local government debt, but not “of” it. That is to say, for a number of reasons, it has always been considered an outlier.

Indeed, munis are off to a blistering pace in 2019, with mutual and exchange-traded funds focused on the debt on track to pull in a record amount of cash this year. Investors are buying even though a closely watched gauge of relative value would suggest the bonds are a screaming sell. Never mind that at the start of the year, a federal oversight board argued that more than $6 billion of Puerto Rico’s general-obligation bonds should be declared null and void because issuing them in the first place breached the island’s constitutional debt limit. It’s just an outlier, after all.

Or is it?

John Tillman, the CEO of conservative think tank Illinois Policy Institute, and Warlander Asset Management’s Eric Cole, a protege of Appaloosa Management’s David Tepper, are teaming up in an effort to invalidate a whopping $14.3 billion of Illinois debt on the grounds that the state’s pension bond sale in 2003 and securities issued in 2017 to pay a backlog of unpaid bills were in fact deficit-financing transactions prohibited by the constitution.

Except, as we discussed yesterday, the Illinois Constitution does not explicitly or even implicitly bar this sort of borrowing.

* I mean, the constitutional passage in question is only 88 words long. Even people from New York can handle that

State debt for specific purposes may be incurred or the payment of State or other debt guaranteed in such amounts as may be provided either in a law passed by the vote of three-fifths of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly or in a law approved by a majority of the electors voting on the question at the next general election following passage. Any law providing for the incurring or guaranteeing of debt shall set forth the specific purposes and the manner of repayment.

That’s the specific passage referenced in Tillman’s legal filing. You tell me where it prevents bonding to pay off old bills because I sure as heck don’t see it.

*** UPDATE *** The markets were indeed spooked…



Bloomberg should be so proud.

  25 Comments      


One of Wordslinger’s best stories

Tuesday, Jul 2, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* The Question of the Day on a Friday afternoon ahead of Father’s Day weekend in 2014

Do you have any fond political memories of your father?

Here is the late, great Wordslinger’s contribution

Late in his much-too-short life, my old man developed a highly unlikely and completely accidental friendship with Bob Dole.

When I was a kid, in 1977, my peeps and I went to Norfolk to see my old man’s brother, who was in port as chief engineer on an oil tanker.

On the way back, we stopped for a few days in DC to see the sites.

Back then, security was nil. You pretty much had the run of the place. We went to Rep. Simon’s office on the Hill and the very nice people there loaded us up with same-day passes for the White House, the Pentagon, and some special exhibitions at the Smithsonian.

Just imagine; on the same day, we got a pass for a special White House Rose Garden tour, and got to shake hands with Pres. Carter, Rosalyn and Jackie O., who was there for some reason (my mom thought that was way cool).

Long story short, over the course of a couple of days, we kept bumping into Sen. Dole, all over town.

You have to remember, Dole had been Jerry Ford’s hatchet man in the 1976 race, and was considered to be in the GOP right wing (can you believe it?).

My folks were Norwegians and red-hot, anti-fascist, anti-commie, civil rights liberals.

Finally, after bumping into him one more time, Dole approached us and said “we have to stop meeting like this” and started chatting up the old man.

My parents were immigrants and could be very self-conscious about their accents. So when Dole asked if there was something he could do for us, they kept mum.

I knew what my folks wanted, though, so I piped up “we’d like to meet Sen. Humphrey.”

“Let’s go,” Dole said.

“Senator, we need to be…” a Dole aide started to protest.

“Shut up,” Dole explained.

As we made our way down to the Capitol Hill subway system, Dole and my old man got lost in conversation. Dole had had a tough time in WWII, and I know the old man had, too, though he never talked about it.

As my aunts recounted over the years, when he was about 21, the old man and his crew had been arrested by the Gestapo for stealing food from a Nazi storehouse. They were in a slave labor camp until VE Day and some of them were worked and starved to death.

Meanwhile, the Dole aide who had been told to “shut up” was trying to find out why the Senator was taking such an interest in us.

My mom wouldn’t talk, so he was pressing me, the kid with corncobs coming out of his ears.

“So, where in Kansas are you folks from?” he asked.

“We’re from Illinois,” I said.

“Oh? Huh. So how do you know Sen. Dole?”

“Um, from TV.”

Now he’s getting pissed. “No, I mean why is he taking you to see Sen. Humphrey right now?”

“I don’t know.”

We took the subway to some huge Senate hearing room. The old man and Dole sat together and continued talking. I sat with Mr. Shut Up. My mom sat with Sen. Kennedy (she considered herself an honorary Kennedy after meeting Jackie O and Teddy, and would talk about them like family whenever they popped up in the news).

I think it was the Foreign Relations Committee.

But we didn’t go in for a while. The old man and Dole stood to the side, continuing to talk.

I know they were talking about the war, when they were young men.

The old man had never said ten words to anyone in his family about the war, but here was this old Norsky liberal, thick accent and all, chewing the ear of the GOP vice presidential nominee. And Dole was listening.

Finally, Dole approaches the big doors, and they’re swung open for him.

He marches us down the center aisle of this huge, crowded hearing room, takes us right up to Humphrey and says “Hubert, your Illinois fan club is here.”

Humphrey was dying from the cancer and didn’t have any hair. But he lit up like a light bulb, took us to some back corridor and he, Dole and my folks chatted like old friends about this, that and nothing in particular.

My parents were thrilled and talked about their day with Dole and Humphrey for the rest of their lives.

Dole didn’t have to do any of that. We were nobodies. My parents weren’t from Kansas; they weren’t citizens, they couldn’t even vote.

But he did because he was just a decent man, and made my folks feel like big shots in Washington, like they’d really made it in America.

It’s about the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Just a sweet, selfless act of kindness.

Dole and the old man would exchange Christmas cards til my Dad died. My old man didn’t change his politics, but nobody could say a word against his pal Bob.

Years later, when Dole was running for president in Iowa, I got to know Dole a little better. I liked him a lot then, I like him more now.

And I voted for him for president, for me, my mom and my old man.

That story says more about Wordslinger than just about anything he ever wrote here. This blog is just never going to be the same without him.

* By the way, Karl’s daughter Emma is studying journalism at DePaul and is doing an internship with the Chicago Sun-Times this summer. We’re going to talk a bit more about her today, but I wanted to show you this…



  64 Comments      


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Tuesday, Jul 2, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

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*** LIVE COVERAGE ***

Tuesday, Jul 2, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Follow along with ScribbleLive


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Lightfoot still pressing for state bailout

Monday, Jul 1, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Background is here and here if you need it. Greg Hinz

In a joint appearance [with Gov. Pritzker and Mayor Lightfoot] at an event celebrating the state’s new capital program, Lightfoot didn’t directly confirm—but didn’t deny—that she’s pitching the idea of the state assuming responsibility for the city’s pension funds, including taking on their $28 billion in liabilities.

Gov. Pritzker turned a big thumbs down to that idea

“The state is just above junk (bond) status,” he noted. Adding the city’s pension debts on top of that “would drive us to that point. So, we’re not going to do that. But there are other options.”

* More

[Lightfoot] did mention a tax on legal, accounting and other professional services. But the levy, which would require state approval, would not apply to haircuts and other day-to-day things that would make it “regressive,” she said.

Lightfoot did declare that solving the city’s seemingly unending pension woes is a top priority, one she’s willing to risk her re-election on.

“The reason we haven’t solved the pension problem is (lack of) political will, pure and simple,” she said. “We have to get this problem solved. . . .If we don’t have some structural relief, we’re going to continue to have this (fiscal) problem time after time.”

So, the mayor is willing to “risk her re-election” by having the state assume her city’s $28 billion in pension debt? How remarkably brave she is.

Pritzker has not looked too favorably on service taxes in the past. And approving yet another round of taxes next year - which is in an election year - seems a bit of a stretch, particularly if those taxes are for a Chicago pension bailout. But, hey, maybe she can finally sit down with the legislative leaders and lay out her ideas. And if they could limit a new service tax to Chicago, she might possibly have a shot, but that may still be a reach.

By the way, this is just the sort of post that wouldn’t be complete without some cutting remarks from Wordslinger. Y’all have some slack to pick up here.

…Adding… Fran Spielman

At first, Lightfoot said “a number of different options” were being considered, that she had “no definitive plan” for pension relief, and would make no specific “revenue ask” of the governor until she cuts more costs.

But asked about Pritzker’s apparent decision to slam the door on the idea of a state takeover of the city’s $28 billion pension liability, Lightfoot acknowledged a service tax was probably her next best hope.

“That is an option that we are looking at. And when we have a package of options finalized, we’ll present them to the governor and the senior leadership in the General Assembly,” the mayor said.

“Let me be clear: We’re not looking at a general expansion of the service tax,” Lightfoot said. “We’re not looking at expanding the service tax on mom and pop companies.”

  53 Comments      


Wordslinger

Monday, Jul 1, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Quad-City Times

A former reporter for the Quad-City Times died from injuries he suffered after he was struck June 10 by a car.

Karl Oxnevad, 55, of Oak Park, Illinois, died June 11 at Loyola Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois.

He was employed at the Quad-City Times from 1986-1989.

Oxnevad grew up in DeKalb, Illinois, and attended Northern Illinois University, where he wrote for the Northern Star. He later earned a master’s degree from the University of Illinois, Springfield. He worked for publications in Illinois and Iowa.

He was known here as Wordslinger.

Karl had disappeared from the blog and commenters were asking about him, but I just figured he went on vacation to his summer haunt in Michigan or somewhere. I e-mailed and texted him and never heard back, but I didn’t think to Google his name until a mutual friend called me with the bad news this afternoon.

Karl and I took a class together back at Sangamon State. He was in the Public Affairs Reporting program and I was a Political Studies major with no real direction in life. We communicated regularly by text and email, and we talked often about getting together, but life always somehow intervened.

* From Karl’s obit

Oxnevad, Karl Kristian Age 55, of Oak Park, IL passed away on June 11, 2019 at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, IL. He was born on December 3, 1963 in Rockford, IL, the son of Henrik and Ester (Nese) Oxnevad.

Karl grew up in DeKalb, IL, the youngest of five children. Karl attended Northern Illinois University, where we wrote for the Northern Star. He later received a master’s degree from the University of Illinois Springfield. He had a long career of reporting and working for publications across Illinois and Iowa.

Karl was an avid reader and writer, and you could always find him with a book in his hand. Some of his favorite subjects included politics and history, and he was always up for a re-read of his favorite books. He loved to tell stories and always got a kick out of making people laugh.

He was a lifelong fan of Chicago sports teams, and took pride in watching his children perform both onstage and on the sports field. He loved to travel around the United States and he cherished vacations spent with his wife and children in Ludington, MI. Karl loved his family dearly, and nothing made him happier than spending quality time with the people he loved the most.

Karl is survived by his wife Susan of Oak Park, IL, children Bradley of Chicago, IL, Erik of Traverse City, MI, and Emma of Oak Park, IL; his siblings, Rasmus (Sharon) Oxnevad and Rolf (Maureen) Oxnevad of DeKalb, IL., Louise (Dave) Nelson of Barrington Hills, IL, and Emily (Bill) Logan of Morrison, CO; and many nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his parents, Henrik and Ester.

* Here he is…

I’m just too stunned to write anything more about Karl right now. He helped make this website what it is today and I will forever be indebted.

His obituary asks for donations to “members of the Oxnevad family, to be put towards continuing higher education,” so I’ll work on getting that info to you.

Right now, I think I’m just gonna take a little time away from the computer to think about someone who had a huge impact on this state without hardly anyone knowing who he really was.

  247 Comments      


No huge gasoline price hike yet

Monday, Jul 1, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* According to the Gas Buddy website at about 1:15 this afternoon, the average Illinois gasoline price has only risen about 5 cents a gallon today, even though a 19 cents per gallon increase of the Motor Fuel Tax kicked in at midnight. Gas prices fluctuate all the time. Gas Buddy reports the price of a gallon of regular gas in Illinois is about 8 cents lower today than it was on June 2nd.

Meanwhile, here’s yet another uninformed person on the street story about today’s Motor Fuel Tax hike

“I truly hope it does what it’s supposed to do,” [Steve Young, a Springfield retiree who was filling his tank at the Shell station on West Washington Street] said. “We’ve seen that happen. Infrastructure hasn’t been maintained.

“I just hope they don’t take other funding away from (the infrastructure plan), sort of like what the lottery did back in the 1970s. (All the money was) going to education. Well, then they just cut the whole line item for education.” […]

Dan Bergner of Springfield filled up both of his cars at two packed Circle Ks on the north end Saturday in anticipation of the tax hike.

Bergner previously lived in Georgia and he saw the state and its infrastructure benefit from things like the lottery.

“When we lived in Georgia, the lottery went for the roads and education and a lot of the schools (there) are like college campuses,” Bergner said. “They have some of the best teachers in the U.S. and the roads have been phenomenal. In Illinois, they can’t seem to keep the money where it’s supposed to go. It gets used elsewhere. […]

“Truckers coming through Illinois aren’t fueling up (here). They’re fueling up before they get to Illinois. They pay fees to use the roads, but they’re not getting the revenue from the fuel tax.”

1) The lottery education shell game was real. As money came in from lottery receipts, state general revenue funding for K-12 was pared back. But we’ve had the opposite problem with transportation money. Legislators and governors kept dipping into the Road Fund to pay for state operating costs and program expenses. Illinois voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2016 that prevents using state transportation money for anything other than transportation purposes.

2) All the profits from the state of Georgia’s lottery go to education, according to the Georgia Lottery itself. No lottery revenue is spent on transportation projects in that state.

3) There’s this thing called the IFTA that distributes truckers’ motor fuel taxes

The International Fuel Tax Agreement — also known as IFTA — is a fuel tax collection and sharing agreement for the redistribution of fuel taxes paid by interstate commercial carriers. There are 58 member jurisdictions of IFTA, including 48 American states and 10 Canadian provinces.

By requiring commercial carriers to pay fuel taxes proportionally, according to the miles driven in each state or province, the agreement ensures that each jurisdiction has its fair share of revenue to put towards roads and transportation.

I get the anger. Who would want to give this state government another penny of their hard-earned dollars? So their anger is a legit news story. But while regular folks are generally unclear on concepts like these, news media outlets shouldn’t be.

  31 Comments      


*** UPDATED x3 - Frerichs: Filing is “absurd” and a “political stunt” - Mendoza: Filing is “ridiculous” and “garbage” *** Tillman wants to blow up $14.3 billion in bond payments, Pritzker admin calls it “quixotic”

Monday, Jul 1, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* There is so much wrong with this Bloomberg story

A hedge fund run by a protege of Appaloosa Management’s David Tepper and the chief executive officer of a conservative think tank sued Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, saying $14.3 billion of bonds should be invalidated because their issuance violated the state constitution.

Warlander Asset Management, a New York-based hedge fund formed by Eric Cole, and John Tillman, the CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute, said the state’s record pension bond sale in 2003 and debt issued in 2017 to pay a backlog of unpaid bills were deficit financings prohibited by the constitution. The lawsuit was filed Monday in Sangamon County circuit court.

First of all, this filing isn’t actually a lawsuit. In this state, a petition to file a taxpayer lawsuit must first be approved by the court. And those approvals are exceedingly rare. From the filing

This Court is not tasked at the petition stage with determining “whether the allegations of the proposed complaint can, on hearing, be sustained,” but only with determining if Petitioner has offered “reasonable grounds for filing suit.”

* Back to Bloomberg

Article nine, section nine of the Illinois Constitution says the state may issue long-term debt only to finance “specific purposes” if approved by three-fifths of the legislature or by popular referendum.

Um, no. The Bloomberg reporter should’ve glanced at the Illinois Constitution.

From the Tillman filing

The Illinois Constitution expressly limits the State’s power to incur State debt. Article IX, section 9 permits the State to incur new long-term debt only to finance “specific purposes.” Ill. Const. art IX, section 9(b). “Specific purposes” refers to specific projects in the nature of capital improvements, including roads, buildings, and bridges. Simply obtaining cash to finance the State’s structural deficits or to speculate in the market is not a “specific purpose.”

What?

* I’m not sure what Illinois Constitution they’re reading, but here’s what ours actually says

SECTION 9. STATE DEBT
(a) No State debt shall be incurred except as provided in this Section. For the purpose of this Section, “State debt” means bonds or other evidences of indebtedness which are secured by the full faith and credit of the State or are required to be repaid, directly or indirectly, from tax revenue and which are incurred by the State, any department, authority, public corporation or quasi-public corporation of the State, any State college or university, or any other public agency created by the State, but not by units of local government, or school districts.

(b) State debt for specific purposes may be incurred or the payment of State or other debt guaranteed in such amounts as may be provided either in a law passed by the vote of three-fifths of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly or in a law approved by a majority of the electors voting on the question at the next general election following passage. Any law providing for the incurring or guaranteeing of debt shall set forth the specific purposes and the manner of repayment. […]

(f) The State, departments, authorities, public corporations and quasi-public corporations of the State, the State colleges and universities and other public agencies created by the State, may issue bonds or other evidences of indebtedness which are not secured by the full faith and credit or tax revenue of the State nor required to be repaid, directly or indirectly, from tax revenue, for such purposes and in such amounts as may be authorized by law.

By my reading, there is no “specific purposes” limitation in the Illinois Constitution. The language allows debt to be incurred as long as the law states what that specific purpose is and how it will be repaid. That’s it. And there is clearly no list of what is allowed and what isn’t (except for percentage limits on revenue anticipation bonds and bonds to cover fiscal emergencies). The provisions were a deliberate expansion of state authority to take on debt that were prohibited by the previous constitution. A well-written history of the 1870 vs. 1970 constitutions shows this conclusion by the Committee on Revenue and Finance of the 1970 Constitutional Convention

As to its third contention, the committee found that: [T]he existence of constitutional debt limitations has increased interest costs and has caused the expenditure of large sums of money for additional administrative and insurance costs, resulting from the use of authorities and other techniques devised to avoid state debt limits.

Yet, somehow, the pension bond in 2003 and the 2017 bonding to pay off past-due bills are unconstitutional, according to this filing.

* Bloomberg’s story is just so irresponsible

The lawsuit comes two months after the federal board overseeing Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy and a group of hedge funds sought to have more than $6 billion of the island’s bonds declared null and void and shows how the island’s effort to cut its debts is reverberating in the $3.8 trillion U.S. municipal-bond market. The Puerto Rico overseers have sought to have the debt tossed out on the grounds that it was sold after the territory breached its debt limits, a step that some analysts said could undermine confidence in a market that’s seen as a haven.

And now there’s a hedge fund and a right wing think tank coming after Illinois.

* From the governor’s office…

John Tillman and Bruce Rauner’s old buddies are back to playing dangerous games with our finances so they can keep up their quixotic quest to drive Illinois into bankruptcy.

*** UPDATE 1 *** Comptroller Susana Mendoza…

I prefer not to comment on pending litigation. But with a ridiculous-on-its-face filing like this, I’ll make an exception.

This is an extension of John Tillman’s and former Governor Bruce Rauner’s fantasy of pushing Illinois into bankruptcy so they could crush unions in Illinois. They succeeded in lowering the state’s bond ratings and forcing Illinois taxpayers to pay higher rates on bonds, but they failed in every other regard.

The media should waste no ink on a ridiculous lawsuit that misrepresents the Illinois Constitution and seeks to enjoin a state from spending money that was wisely spent years ago, approved by bond counsel. But this filing was never about the law. It was meant to generate headlines to scare investors in the bond market for political ends before the filing is laughed out of court.

With the $6 billion the state borrowed in 2017, we used federal matching funds to pay off $8.7 billion in high interest-accruing debt. Instead of paying 12 percent annual interest on that debt, the bond sale allowed us to convert that to 3.5 percent interest. Not only did that save Illinois taxpayers $4-$6 billion dollars over the life of the bonds, it saved small businesses, nursing homes, schools, medical clinics and other non-profits around the state from having to close their doors. Tillman now wants Illinois taxpayers to pay an extra $4-$6 billion for his adventures in absurdity.

Governor Pritzker and legislators of both parties are working hard and succeeding in cleaning up Governor Rauner’s and his key advisor John Tillman’s wreckage of the of the state economy. The markets should see this as nothing more than garbage that should be thrown out immediately by the courts.

*** UPDATE 2 *** Bond Buyer

The Pritzker administration dismissed the allegations and highlighted the string of legal advisors that signed off on the deals.

“This is simply a new tactic from the extreme right to interfere in capital markets. We’re done with the far right’s dangerous financial games to pull Illinois underwater. We saw this repeatedly under Bruce Rauner, who funded and executed on John Tillman’s pathological focus to drive Illinois into bankruptcy,” Pritzker spokeswoman Emily Bittner said in an emailed statement, referring to the former governor.

“Several layers of bond counsel and Attorney General Madigan were required to sign off on bond offerings, and these met those standards. This lawsuit is not worth the paper it’s written on,” Bittner added.

Several market participants said while they needed to digest the lawsuit’s arguments, the Illinois constitution grants the General Assembly broad bonding powers and they voiced skepticism that the various legal reviews conducted on the bonds would have allowed such violations to occur. They also suggested the “specific purpose” language is broad and that the bonds were issued with a GO pledge that allows for the sweeping use of the general fund for repayment purposes.

That’s probably why they leaked the lawsuit to that Bloomberg reporter and not to Yvette Shields at the Bond Buyer.

*** UPDATE 3 *** Treasurer Michael Frerichs…

Today’s legal filing is another political stunt by Mr. Tillman and the extremists at the Illinois Policy Institute.

The 2019 legislative session showed what can happen when elected officials ignore the extremists and instead focus on working together in a bi-partisan fashion to improve Illinois’ finances.

Governor Pritzker and legislators from both parties passed a budget that begins to undo the financial harm done by four years of Bruce Rauner.

I intend to let Attorney General Kwame Raoul do his job and ask the court to reject this absurd request from Mr. Tillman and the Illinois Policy Institute to have the courts entertain the extremist agenda that the legislature and the voting public have already overwhelmingly rejected.

  35 Comments      


Jerry Joyce

Monday, Jul 1, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Jerry Joyce was my state Senator growing up in Iroquois County. His defeat of Ed McBroom, who ran the Kankakee County Republican Party like the Democrats ran Chicago, was a stunning upset.

Those upsets were pretty common in the post-Watergate wave year of 1974, but that one had huge local and statewide consequences. Jerry’s win not only drove a big stake into the local GOP machine’s heart, but it also helped flip the Senate to the Democrats, which (aside from the time that Gov. Thompson wouldn’t let go of the gavel) the party did not relinquish for 18 years.

His win, along with several others, remade the Senate, not always to Mayor Richard J. Daley’s liking. Jerry was part of the “Crazy Eights,” a group of mainly Downstate Democrats who refused to vote lockstep with old man Daley (click here for a good backgrounder)

Jerry was mapped out of the Senate during the 1991 GOP remap. I ran into him in Key West at the end of a week’s vacation back in 2002 and enjoyed myself so much I extended my vacation for another week. He was a delight to hang out with and was full of great stories. I will cherish that time for the rest of my life, but I wish I had taken notes. I’ve known Jerry’s daughter Lori for decades. She was an indispensable high-level Senate Democratic staffer who left the business to raise a fine family with former Speaker Madigan Issues Staff Director Tom Cullen.

* The Kankakee Daily Journal’s obit is top notch

Jerry Joyce, a 17-year Illinois state senator and a champion for agriculture and outdoor issues throughout the state, died June 19. He was 80.

In addition to his Springfield tenure, Joyce, from Essex in western Kankakee County, served on the Kankakee County Board.

A farmer and a Democrat, Joyce scored a major election upset in November 1974 when he defeated Sen. Ed McBroom, a Kankakee resident and Republican political heavyweight, to represent the Illinois 43rd Senate district, which included the counties of Kankakee, Iroquois, Grundy, Ford, as well as the southwestern portion of Will County. […]

Robert Themer, a retired longtime Daily Journal editor and reporter, called Joyce the greatest elected official he had ever covered.

“There is no one that I’ve covered that I’ve admired as much as Jerry Joyce. He was a tremendous advocate for this region,” he said.

Themer noted the advocacy Joyce had for the Kankakee River, the Kankakee River State Park and outdoor facilities in general.

Go read the whole thing.

* Bernie

Illinois Auditor General FRANK MAUTINO, a Democrat from Spring Valley, fondly remembered Joyce as a “decent, kind human being.” Mautino came to the House in 1991, when he was appointed to replace his father, Rep. DICK MAUTINO, who died of a heart attack at age 53.

“He took his time with a young, downstate member coming in — I was 28 at the time — to help me,” Mautino told me. “He was always very, very willing to help, and to show, not only me, but other young members, how to get bills passed and get things done.”

The fact that Joyce, like Mautino, represented an agricultural area, plus Joyce’s friendship with Mautino’s father, helped them bond, the auditor general said.

“He was gregarious, kind of bigger than life,” Mautino said. “You knew when Jerry was in the room.”

Yep.

* Arrangements

A memorial visitation will be at the R.W. Patterson Funeral Home & Crematory from 2 to 5 p.m. July 2. A memorial service will be held at 5 p.m. Inurnment will be private. … In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts in his name may be directed to the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.

  9 Comments      


The family had a lot of buffers

Monday, Jul 1, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Speaker Madigan’s team has always denied that they put two Latino Democratic candidates into Madigan’s 2016 primary race to take votes away from well-funded challenger Jason Gonzales. But depositions from a few people involved reveal the involvement of 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn’s brother Kevin (who worked out of Madigan’s office until given the boot after being accused of sexual harassment) and of one of Madigan’s precinct captains, Eugene Pagois.

The entire Tribune story about the depositions is a must-read, if only for passages like this about former HDO and Cicero Voters Alliance precinct worker Joseph Nasella

Nasella didn’t easily give up his story about what he said was the Madigan camp’s request to help another candidate get on the ballot against the speaker.

According to court records, Nasella avoided process servers in Hammond, Lansing and his mother’s 10th Ward residence for months. But after a federal judge issued an arrest warrant, he turned up.

Even then, Nasella initially came across as a reluctant witness during the lengthy deposition. A lawyer’s attempt to get some basic information on the record proved a challenge.

“Where I live and who I f— is my business,” responded Nasella, 55.

This is a truly fascinating story. You’ve got one guy, Nasella, who has wandered from one public job to another (he’s currently at IDNR) and literally hid out from process servers for months to avoid testifying about his petition effort allegedly directed by Kevin Quinn, the brother of Madigan’s “general.” And another guy, Michael Kuba, who reads at the 6th grade level and apparently accompanied Madigan precinct captain Pagois while Pagois obtained signatures so that Kuba could sign the petition sheets and obscure MJM’s direct involvement.

I got tired just writing that paragraph. Imagine how much energy and effort they’ve had to put into that race, before, during and for three years after. I mean, sheesh, did they also fly in uncles from Sicily to attend the depositions?

Madigan ended up winning with 65 percent of the vote. Maybe they should focus on doing that sort of precinct work and dump the dark skullduggery.

  28 Comments      


“A classic example of needing to invest upfront to ensure that you’re competitive for the long run”

Monday, Jul 1, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* My Crain’s Chicago Business column

Some of the finest minds in the state recently explained to me the importance of a mostly unnoticed line in the state of Illinois’ new capital projects plan.

University of Chicago President Robert Zimmer, Argonne National Laboratory Director Paul Kearns and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Provost Andreas Cangellaris touted new state government funding for a program that could be “even bigger than supercomputing” (Zimmer) and a “paradigm shift” in technology (Cangellaris).

What is this marvel? Quantum physics. It’s the study of subatomic particles that don’t behave in the way we understand “normal” physics. The particles do things like exist in two places simultaneously, move through what we would consider solid objects and change their form when observed. Google it. It’ll blow your mind.

The idea is to try to harness these tiny particles to do stuff like create vastly improved computing systems or design totally new types of pharmaceuticals or unbreakable encryption.

In 2017, the University of Chicago invested $100 million and partnered with Argonne and Fermilab on a project called the Chicago Quantum Exchange.

While the University of Illinois may be better known for its supercomputing and internet breakthroughs, which led to pretty much everything digital that we take for granted today, the institution has been studying quantum physics since the early 1950s. It joined the exchange in October.

President Donald Trump signed a bill in December providing over a billion dollars for quantum research. The military is especially concerned about China, which successfully conducted a quantum encryption experiment and is reportedly spending billions on the technology.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been involved with high-tech development for years in the private sector, and he says he’s familiar with quantum physics. He also knew about U of C’s $100 million investment and its search for more partners. So he decided

Click here to read the rest before commenting, please.

  26 Comments      


Pick a lane

Monday, Jul 1, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* My weekly syndicated newspaper column

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the $45 billion infrastructure bill into law last week during a three-day fly-around to several Illinois cities.

It’s a good bet that the billionaire Pritzker paid for the plane that took him and whatever staff he brought to the various venues, since he’s regularly done that since taking office in January. The state hasn’t had an appropriation to pay to operate its fleet of aircraft since Gov. Bruce Rauner halted their use during a long period of political gridlock.

Illinois is close to 400 miles long and over 200 miles wide. Flying is far more efficient and much less exhausting than driving to cities throughout this state in a day or two or even three. The governor should have better things to do with his time.

The state-owned airplane fleet was a constant source of irritation to good government types back in the day, and we regularly saw news articles about their use and/or over-use.

The Associated Press, for instance, published a story in 2007 about how then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich had taken almost 1,000 flights on state planes in five years. Blagojevich was known to commute back and forth from his home in Chicago to Springfield on days when the General Assembly was in session.

Several politicians, including former Gov. Pat Quinn, were legitimately criticized over the years for taking state planes to official government events and then hosting campaign events nearby. The government flights essentially helped subsidize their campaigns.

But the debate shifted during Gov. Rauner’s one and only term. The mega-rich Republican was criticized by a reform group in 2017 for renting a helicopter with his own personal money to visit a flooded area in Lake County. The executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform said at the time that there should be some sort of public disclosure when private funds are used for state purposes.

And Gov. Pritzker was just criticized by another reform group for paying for private jet rides for him and his staff to official events in Washington, DC and New York. “It feels wrong,” said the executive director of Common Cause Illinois, according to Chicago’s NBC 5. The reformer said the use of private money for public purposes concerned him.

It may “feel wrong” because of the amount of money involved, but there are some elected officials of more modest means who choose not to accept travel and mileage reimbursements, or per diems or whatever. For that matter, some public school teachers dip into their own pockets to pay for classroom supplies. What do we do about them?

Not long after Pat Quinn was elevated to governor after Blagojevich was impeached and removed from office, an Associated Press story favorably highlighted Quinn’s decision to pay for most of his overseas travel as lieutenant governor out of his own pocket. The story also reported that Quinn refused to accept a daily meal allowance when traveling and often paid for his own hotel rooms. “The thrifty image is in contrast to Blagojevich, who was criticized for his frequent use of state aircraft,” the article’s author claimed.

Not a single good government group spoke up back then to say Quinn’s alleged thriftiness with state money by paying his own way “feels wrong.” But two rich guys in a row have taken heat for using their own money for trips on private aircraft instead of billing taxpayers.

I get the class consciousness angle here. “Get a load of Mr. Bigshot flying around on private jets.” But the guy is rich beyond most of our comprehensions and, just like Rauner before, Illinoisans knew that when they elected him. Candidate Pritzker flew around the state on a fleet of private planes and now Gov. Pritzker is doing the same.

Maybe there’s a dollar point above which personal spending for public purposes could be disclosed. But it “feels” like such a law would be targeting one guy. And to what end? Are we really entitled to know how much an elected official spends out of his or her own bank account rather than charging taxpayers?

The reformers need to think this whole thing through and come back with an actual policy proposal that goes beyond feelings and addresses the potential for real abuses. The Center for Illinois Politics announced last week that it would host a public forum about this topic so it could be thoroughly discussed. Fine by me.

Either way, pick a lane. Don’t spend decades complaining about the use of state-owned planes then suddenly shift to criticizing privately funded flights.

  27 Comments      


*** LIVE COVERAGE ***

Monday, Jul 1, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Follow along with ScribbleLive


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