Legislators approved the SAFE-T Act at the urging of the Black Caucus in January 2021 as part of Black legislators’ response to the murder of George Floyd.
“This is about trying to build a process that allows people to have faith in the system, and building a process where justice is more fair,” said state Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth, D-Peoria, a Black Caucus member.
Her own stepson was murdered in 2014.
“Crime is something that has been very prevalent in a lot of communities in Illinois. I myself am a crime victim. My family has seen the absolute worst of every side of this issue,” she said. “For one to think that anybody would be a proponent of crime is silly and it’s quite preposterous.”
More on the murder of Deputy Majority Leader Gordon-Booth’s stepson can be found here. Some of JGB’s work with crime victims is here.
* So, what about her statement that some people are claiming that those supporting the law are a “proponent of crime”? Well, here are just a few quick examples gathered by my associate Isabel Miller…
House Republican Leader Jim Durkin: Until they wake up and repeal their pro-criminal SAFE-T Act, there will be no safe communities in Illinois.
Rep. Andrew Chesney: “How did we get here? During the final hours of the 2021 lame duck session, Illinois Democrats rammed through anti-police, pro-criminal legislation, which Governor Pritzker then signed into law.”
Rep. Joe Sosnowski: “Together with thousands of like-minded citizens across Illinois, we can put pressure on Illinois Democrats to reverse course on their dangerous pro-criminal policies before it is too late.”
Kankakee County Sheriff Mike Downey: No mention of this officer by our anti-law enforcement Governor, no mention of this officer by the authors of HB 3653 Sen. Elgie Sims or Rep. Justin Slaughter both anti-law enforcement legislators who rammed through anti-police/pro-criminal legislation in the early morning hours when no one was watching.
JGB was and remains a SAFE-T Act proponent, but also says that changes will be made in the veto session.
* On to a media advisory…
Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, along with Representatives Keith Wheeler and Chris Bos, will host a news conference via zoom and broadcast on BlueRoomStream on Wednesday, October 5 at 12:00 pm (Noon) CT.
The SAFE-T Act, which takes effect on January 1st, will end cash bail and increase property taxes to pay for this new government program. House Republicans will discuss the increased costs on local governments which will be heaped upon overburdened property taxpayers in Illinois.
* One of their House Republican candidates laid out the property tax argument in a recent press release…
Illinois House 66th District Candidate Connie Cain will support repealing the SAFE-T Act to protect the community and prevent property tax increases from filling the budget holes that the legislation is creating for local governments.
Last week, the Kane County Board announced it was discussing the first property tax increase in a decade to fill a deficit - about $3 million of which was created by unfunded mandated reforms in the SAFE-T Act - which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2023, as reported by the Daily Herald.
As a United States Army Reserves veteran and a Licensed Certified Public Accountant with over 20 years of financial experience, Cain is concerned that the legislation is fiscally irresponsible and harmful to public safety.
“The SAFE-T Act defunds the police through unfunded mandates and cost shifts to local taxpayers for administering our criminal justice system after January 1st,” said Cain. “This defunding is forcing local governments like ours to increase property taxes, decrease public safety, or both. If elected, I will fight to repeal this legislation and its accompanying hikes to our local property taxes, which are already the second-highest in the nation thanks to tax-and-spend politicians in Springfield.”
While the SAFE-T Act has been receiving national attention for its sweeping overhaul of Illinois’ criminal justice and pre-trial detention system that could threaten public safety, taxpayers are only just becoming aware of the very real defunding and tax hikes the legislation punts to local government officials.
“This legislation undoes all the hard work local officials have put in over the last ten years to avoid local property tax hikes,” Cain said. “We are seeing the defunding play out in real-time and, as always, it will overburden Kane County taxpayers and families footing the bill.”
The Kane County Board has tried to prevent property tax increases by keeping government salaries lower than neighboring DuPage and Lake counties, but new costs are driving the conversation about tax hikes. The SAFE-T Act was opposed by nearly every law enforcement organization in the state, and it was criticized by local governments concerned it would be especially detrimental to smaller police departments and drive up taxes. The final legislation was passed in the middle of the night without a single Republican vote.
Illinois House Republicans proactively filed House Resolution 598 in January, which “Urges the Illinois General Assembly to value and protect crime victims and law enforcement and to repeal House Bill 3653, the SAFE-T Act, in its entirety.” The resolution was never called for a vote. Cain said she would be introducing new legislation to both repeal no cash bail and other dangerous provisions of the SAFE-T Act and to prevent property tax hikes to fund criminal justice reforms.
Leader Durkin is Lying, SAFE-T Act Does Not Require Property Tax Increase
The SAFE-T Act does not require counties to raise property taxes to fund the criminal legal system after eliminating cash bail. For the last two years, the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts has been working with stakeholders from every branch of government to ensure that counties across Illinois have the guidance and resources they need to effectively make this transition. Non-partisan and bi-partisan groups agree that forcibly extracting revenue through a system of cash bail from low-income people and families living in poverty is not a financially responsible, sustainable, or ethical way to fund government operations.
Money bond does not keep communities safe because it allows people who are a safety or flight risk to be released pretrial as long as they have money, and it jails people who are legally innocent solely because they are poor. People should not be jailed pretrial simply because they can’t afford to pay bond.
In today’s press conference, Leader Durkin claimed that eliminating cash bail removes an operational revenue stream for the criminal legal system. Funding government operations should not happen on the backs of and through the incarceration of low-income communities and people of color. Most people who are unable to pay a money bail, and who are consequently incarcerated pretrial, fall within the poorest third of society. Unnecessary pretrial incarceration of those who are innocent leads to the disruption of family, neighborhood, employment, and community ties. Such disruptions can actually increase the risk of recidivism and destabilize community safety.
Wealth-based incarceration has torn families apart. In Chicago, Lavette Mayes, a mother of two and small business owner was jailed for 571 days because she could not afford to pay her bond. During that time, Ms. Mayes lost her home and business and almost lost custody of her children. Several years after her case ended, Ms. Mayes is still recovering from the harms caused by her pretrial incarceration, and her children remain traumatized to this day. Stories like this one are present in communities across the state, which is why legislators worked to eradicate the use of money bond in Illinois.
Money bond extracts wealth from our state’s poorest communities who are forced to choose between paying rent and paying a ransom to free their loved ones. It is also costly for counties across the state. Pretrial incarceration costs an estimated $40,567 per person per year.
By eliminating cash bail, the Pretrial Fairness provisions of the SAFE-T Act makes sure that low-income people are not trapped in a cycle of poverty and jail time in a criminal justice system that violates the basic constitutional and human rights of our community’s most vulnerable people. The SAFE-T Act ensures that decisions about who is released pretrial and who is jailed are based on safety needs and not access to money. Our justice system should focus on public safety needs and not on generating revenue.
Since Governor Pritzker took office, over $1.1 billion annually has been allocated to local governments to assist with costs over and above what they were previously receiving from the state. This is on top of the 49% increase in revenue sharing to local governments over Governor Pritzker’s first term. In addition, the FY23 budget includes, but certainly is not limited to, an additional $30 million in grants to help local governments with the costs of body and vehicle cameras, which have been proven to be a critical element of a reformed criminal justice system. For pretrial services, to date the state has provided an additional $26 million in funding for the Illinois Supreme Court’s requested support for the first phase of a three-part effort to establish comprehensive pretrial services in the counties without such services.
The Governor has and will continue to work with the General Assembly and local governments to ensure the appropriate resources are allocated to support the reforms passed in the SAFE-T act. The Pre-trial Fairness Act creates a system where detention is based on risk, rather than poverty: that’s why domestic violence groups and other victims’ rights groups support it. Public safety is best addressed by focusing on risk to the community, not on who can afford to pay their way out of jail, and a system that supports that is essential to a fair and equal Illinois. It seems that Republicans are advocating for pretrial defendants to uniquely bear the cost of running our criminal justice system, which is not only unfair but also racist, as found by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
* COVID-19 hospitalizations have now fallen to under 900. Hospitalizations were above 7,300 in January, dropped precipitously to the 400s in March, then rose to about 1,500 in July, where they held fairly steady until falling below 1,000 in late September.
So, who are these folks in the hospital? The Illinois Department of Public Health looked at data from June 1 through September 26 and produced a quick report at my request. “UTD” means up to date on vaccinations, including boosters, except the most recent booster which wasn’t available until early September. The “Not UTD” category covers everyone from those who are not vaccinated at all to those who hadn’t yet received their third shot.
Hospitalized cases in Illinois by age group and vaccination status…
Based on the table above 42% of all hospitalized cases for this period (2022/06/01-2022/09/26) were 70+ and Not_Up to date and 66 percent are Not Up-to-date and over 50.
* With that in mind, let’s circle back to Mary Ann Ahern’s coverage of last Friday’s joint candidate interviews…
I did follow up with the Bailey campaign to ask ‘Has the candidate been vaccinated?’ They will not answer that question.
* Tuesday press release that I somehow missed in my in-box yesterday…
Today, the Nikki Budzinski for Congress campaign is launching its second broadcast television ad of the general election. The ad, called “Walk the Walk”, is delivered by former Macon County Sheriff Tony Brown, and focuses on law enforcement’s support of Budzinski. The Illinois Police Benevolent and Protective Association endorsed Nikki earlier this summer.
Budzinski was the first candidate to begin paid advertising in IL13. “Walk the Walk” will run on broadcast in the St. Louis, and Springfield, Decatur, Champaign media markets.
Thursday at 7 p.m.: An IL-13 debate between Republican Regan Deering and Democrat Nikki Budzinski. Sponsored by Illinois Public Media, WAND News and the League of Women Voters of Champaign County. The debate will be broadcast live on WILL-TV, WILL-AM 580, WILL-FM 90.9, WSIU-TV, WSUI-FM out of Carbondale, the 9 Network, KSDK (online only), STLPR NPR out of St. Louis, WAND out of Decatur and NPR Illinois out of Springfield. It will also stream on Illinois Public Media’s Facebook and YouTube pages.
People Who Play By The Rules PAC has launched a new ad, “I Can Trust This Guy,” featuring former ABC 7 political reporter Charles Thomas. It is available on YouTube, the PBR PAC Facebook Page and will run on statewide media this week.
:30 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyFJV6drnWI
TV Script:
For 25 years, ABC 7 political reporter Charles Thomas gave you the straight news. Now he’s giving you real talk on the governor’s race:
“Darren Bailey? I met the man. He’s a family farmer. Somebody who understands what it’s like to go to work every day. Somebody who’s fair minded. I can trust this guy. I can trust this guy. Yeah, a farmer from southern Illinois? Yeah, yeah — A farmer from southern Illinois.”
Charles Thomas said the Democrats do not act in the interest of Black voters.
CT said he lives downtown but believed he was speaking for the south and west sides of Chicago when he said, “African Americans have more in common with Darren Bailey than JB Pritzker”
*** UPDATE 2 *** If you click here, you’ll see that Proft’s People Who Play By The Rules PAC paid Charles Thomas $50,000 on September 16th for “Consulting” in opposition to Gov. Pritzker.
Marion Unit 2 school board president Joe Bleyer addressed recent bizarre social-media rumors that the district was adding litter boxes to the restrooms for students who wished to dress up in animal costumes.
“Apparently there is some sensation that we are going to have litter boxes in our bathrooms,” Bleyer said. “I can assure you of two things. One, the Illinois Department of Public Health and two, the Illinois plumbing code do not allow for non-functioning restrooms.
“So regardless of what you see on social media, litter boxes are not coming to Marion Unit 2 schools.”
How goofy do you have to be to believe this nonsense? It’s just so silly and downright stupid…
A Nebraska state lawmaker apologized on Monday after he publicly cited a persistent but debunked rumor alleging that schools are placing litter boxes in school bathrooms to accommodate children who self-identify as cats.
That was in March.
An attempt at an explanation for this phenomenon is here.
“During the 2020 election, Jared Kushner tried to artificially ‘inflate’ Donald Trump’s sinking numbers in the polls against Joe Biden, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s new book. Within Team Trump, Haberman reports, the purpose of Kushner’s request was clear — he just wanted to juke the survey numbers, in the hopes of keeping his father-in-law from flying into a rage,” Rolling Stone reports.
From the book: “Kushner, who oversaw reelection strategy from his post as a White House senior adviser, advised a campaign pollster, Tony Fabrizio, to inflate Trump’s standing in surveys that would be shown to the candidate by adding percentage points to his position in the horse race.”
Fabrizio is Dan Proft’s pollster. I’m not saying Fabrizio juked the numbers for Proft like he allegedly did may have done for Trump to make the governor’s race here look like it’s a five-point contest, I’m just saying that I’m probably never going to look at another Fabrizio poll the same way again.
* Oppo Dump: Before the primary, Illinois Right To Life Action rated 8th Congressional District Republican primary candidate Chris Dargis a “2,” meaning he was “Not in full support of all Pro-Life issues.” Dargis contributed $400 to IRLA in April. The group has since revised its Dargis rating to a “1,” meaning he’s “Fully Pro-Life.” IRLA also puts a “#” next to candidates who support rape and incest exceptions for abortion. Keith Pekau has one, but Dargis does not. Dargis is up against US Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who is rated a “4,” which means he is “Totally opposed to Pro-Life issues.”
I have trouble watching Pritzker interviews because I have to pause the video to fact check? Last week he could’ve factually said he raised minimum wage but he added he raised it to a livable wage. Where in JB’s Illinois can you live for $12 an hour? #FirePritker#RestoreIllinoispic.twitter.com/cJ44fXjrCm
Today, U.S. Congressman Sean Casten (D-IL) released his first TV ad of the general election. The ad contrasts Casten’s 100% pro-choice stance, and support from major pro-choice organizations, with his opponent’s extreme anti-choice views. The ad will run on TV through Election Day as part of a seven-figure ad buy.
Transcript
Newscaster: Roe vs. Wade is overruled.
Narrator: Keith Pekau wants to go even further. Pekau supports banning abortion here in Illinois, and would allow states to criminalize abortions even in cases of rape, incest, or to save the mother’s life.
Sean Casten: I always have and always will protect a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions. Including the right to choose an abortion. And I’ll fight any attempt to ban or criminalize abortion access here in Illinois and across the country. I’m Sean Casten and I approve this message.
…Adding… So far, $38,763 has been placed on cable channels ESPN, HGTV, TBSC, TNT and USA. No word yet on broadcast.
— In IL-06, Congressman Sean Casten has a six-figure digital ad featuring the endorsement of Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. Both Casten and Dart are Democrats. The ad focuses on Casten’s support of funding for law enforcement.
Gov. JB Pritzker has given $350,000 to Democrat Josh Shapiro in his run for Pennsylvania governor. It’s all part of Pritzker’s effort to fund governor candidates who he sees as key to keeping abortion rights legal in their states. Pritzker has given an additional $100,000 to Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The Midwestern governors had previously received $250,000 from Pritzker this election cycle.
The Illinois governor also gave $100,000 each to Maine Gov. Janet Mills and Democratic governor challengers Charlie Crist in Florida and Beto O’Rourke in Texas.
* From Mary Ann Ahern’s coverage of the Friday joint candidate interviews…
I did follow up with the Bailey campaign to ask ‘Has the candidate been vaccinated?’ They will not answer that question.
New study of almost 600,000 deaths in Ohio and Florida shows that registered Republicans had far higher excess-death rates than registered Democrats during the pandemic, with almost all of the gap coming after vaccines were available.https://t.co/OG4kVq3SrB
One other thing to note: this study looked at excess deaths, not Covid deaths. So if the vaccines were killing people, you'd see it in this data. You don't see it, because they're not.
Today, Nikki Budzinski announced that her campaign raised over $1,000,000 in the third quarter of 2022. Budzinski entered the general election in June with over $1,000,000 cash on hand, putting her in a strong position to communicate with voters. To date, Budzinski has raised over $3,000,000 since announcing her campaign in August of 2021.
Sean Morrison finds himself in a precarious position. He’s the lone incumbent Republican on the Cook County Board of Commissioners fighting to keep his seat in the November general election. […]
In the last general election in 2018, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who is also chairwoman of the Cook County Democratic Party, targeted three out of four incumbent Republicans on the board — and defeated two of them, including the head of the Illinois Republican Party.
Now Preckwinkle says she plans to topple Morrison, go after Silvestri’s seat and defend the two seats the Democrats flipped to blue four years ago. Buoyed by a new district map that gives Democrats the advantage, Preckwinkle thinks her party has the opportunity to run the entire Cook County Board of Commissioners.
* Illinois treasurer candidates Mike Frerichs, Tom Demmer spar over role of office: “The treasurer should be speaking up and advocating for taxpayers in the big public discussions of the day,” Demmer said. “The state treasurer should be someone who is going to be an outspoken advocate for taxpayers and challenge the status quo.” Demmer, a five-term state representative from Dixon, called Frerichs a “rubber stamp” for Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration who has supported various tax hikes over the years. Frerichs argued that Demmer would be an obstructionist rather than an advocate. He said Demmer acted as former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s floor leader on failed budgets that led to a two-year budget impasse during Rauner’s single term in office that “devastated social service agencies and decimated our public universities” due to lack of funding. “For two years he sat there and said nothing about the devastation that was going on. Let it happen,” Frerichs said. “I won’t sit here and be lectured about policies by someone who tried to destroy social service agencies and pursue an anti-worker agenda.”
* Lake County candidates skipping League of Women Voters forums: ‘We consider this a real problem’: Lara Cooper, spokesperson for Democrat Elizabeth “Liz” Rochford’s campaign, blasted Curran for not agreeing to the forum. “Mark Curran has refused three times to share a stage with Judge Elizabeth Rochford to hide his extremist anti-abortion positions and ‘not recommended’ rating from the Illinois State Bar Association, thereby backing out of campaign forums by making up lies about reputable, nonpolitical organizations like the Lake County League of Women Voters, which has absolutely no agenda other than to inform voters,” Cooper said.
* In the fight for the US House, one of the most important battles is in northwest Illinois: King said she’s opposed to abortion and she’s glad the Supreme Court returned the decision on abortion rules to the states, “especially here in Illinois, where our extreme laws are out of touch with over 80% of Americans.” But she said she doesn’t think the recent proposal by Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to limit abortion rights nationally will go anywhere. “I don’t think too many people are paying attention to Lindsey Graham, especially here in our area,” King said.
We did not foresee this attack on our reputation. We found ourselves in the eye of the political firestorm between Gov. J.B. Pritzker and his Republican opponent, Darren Bailey. The Daily Herald had become the story, and that wasn’t fair to Daily Herald reporters, editors and fellow staffers throughout Paddock Publications. We’re sorry this has resulted in challenges to our staff’s integrity.
As a result, the company will no longer accept print jobs from LGIS, but we will defend the reputation of the Daily Herald and our commitment to journalism and to the communities and readers we serve.[…]
We plan to take several steps to strengthen the harmony among Paddock Publications various business objectives.
Among them:
• Formalize a screening process for commercial printing projects and sensitive advertising. We are appointing a team tasked with identifying print job proposals and advertising that may be sensitive or controversial and then reviewing those for acceptance, rejection or modification. The litmus test for these reviews will for the most part be transparency and factualness. Outside of extremism that would conflict with our values and reflect poorly on the company, the point is not to arbitrarily reject points of view. The right to free expression is a central value that our company endorses. But it is to ensure any print jobs and advertising meet certain fundamental standards. Screening team members also will familiarize themselves with ongoing products so we have enough information to challenge them when necessary or defend them when unfairly questioned.
Nancy Wade, who lives in Lincoln Square, said finding the unsolicited publication in her mailbox made her livid.
“The tabloids aren’t as bad as this. It’s all misleading. If you don’t know much about any of these issues, and this is the first information you ever see, naturally I’d be worried, too,” Wade said. “They are like yelling at you from the page.” […]
“I don’t call them newspapers for a very good reason,” said Don Craven, president of the Springfield-based Illinois Press Association. “They’re not.”
Craven said that neither the Chicago City Wire, nor any of the other 34 Local Government Information Services publications across Illinois are members of the press association, or have applied for membership.
It seems that a new phenomenon is taking hold with phony newspapers being sent to homes across Illinois. The goal of these publications is to confuse and fool people into believing they are reading news when in fact they are reading biased reporting that’s politically driven.
An example is Lake County Gazette, one of 34 publications, 11 of which are in print, published by Local Government Information Services (LGIS). The news outlet has seen steady growth since it was established in 2018. Other titles include Chicago City Wire, McHenry Times, North Cook News, and Sangamon Sun.
These publications are not traditional news, but are in fact hyper-partisan ventures engaged in media manipulation to advance the publishers’ agenda.
A Shaw News article recently reported, “They are drawing attention – including from Gov. JB Pritzker – for being politically charged and containing right-wing talking points just a couple months before the November election.”
* The Democratic Party of Illinois is warning voters about the papers…
“Many critics cannot or refuse to differentiate between a commercial printing operation . . . and the Daily Herald’s editorial mission to be unbiased and fair,” the letter states, without addressing the still-unanswered question of whether LGIS mailed these materials on Paddock’s dime. “The perception for some has become that the Daily Herald favors one party over another and by printing for LGIS, it’s somehow promoting its message. That is not true.”
Actually, producing and apparently providing postage for this stuff is pretty much the definition of promoting this message. And, to be clear, the look would be just as bad if Paddock had printed and lent its postal permit to sham newspapers that amounted to unlabeled ads for Pritzker or Lightfoot.
We’re not talking about slick pamphlets, brochures or posters here—the kind of material that voters are accustomed to finding in their mailboxes, stuck into their doorjambs or pressed into their hands as they run for the train during campaign season. We’re talking about deceptively designed mailers that are clearly meant to simulate newspapers—printed and evidently distributed by a company that, however inconveniently in this case, happens to be in the news business.
That juxtaposition is a particularly unhelpful one for the entire profession as journalists try to do what they do against challenging headwinds. Real journalists ask tough questions, hold power to account, correct the record when they get things wrong, and report only what they know—based on honest reporting and clear-eyed analysis—to be true. Journalism is a public trust. And as “The Journalist’s Creed,” a time-honored declaration first published by the Missouri School of Journalism more than a century ago, puts it: “Acceptance of a lesser service than the public service is a betrayal of this trust.”
What do you think about the Herald’s continued damage control?
…Adding… Walker’s comment…
What damaged DH credibility was not the political squabble between candidates, but rather association with a perverse undercutting of the expectations the public has of established newspapers.
