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This just in, Part 2… *** Downstate Senators want capital bill before transit *** RTA’s Reilly talks about funding ***

Thursday, Nov 1, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

*** 3:08 pm *** OK, let’s start a new thread. To refresh your memories, the governor said today that he’s willing to provide another temporary bailout for mass transit in case a permanent solution isn’t found by Sunday; the RTA’s executive director said he won’t accept another temporary bailout; and Comptroller Dan Hynes says the governor has only given the RTA/CTA $37 million out of the promised $91 million temporary bailout.

Clear? OK. Now, onto our next update…

Downstate Senate Democrats are holding a press conference as I write this to say they won’t vote for a transit bailout bill until a capital projects bill is passed. They say that even though they realize transit is important, capital projects are as or even more important, particularly to them.

Also, RTA Chairman Jim Reilly just called. Reilly said that the RTA has “completed all the paperwork” for both parts of the temporary bailout proposal originally promised by Gov. Blagojevich, but that the governor’s office has not yet sent the RTA all their promised cash.. So, any leftover money that hasn’t yet been disbursed yet would not be “new” money.

Asked about his exective director’s comment about not taking another temporary money infusion, Reilly said, “I can’t imagine our agreeing to anything further, but it’s hard to comment until we actually get a proposal from the governor. ” The longer this gets delayed, he said, the more drastic the cuts or the fare increases have to be.

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY *** New BIMP language in House ***

Thursday, Nov 1, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Afternoon edition (Use all caps in password)

Thursday, Nov 1, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

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This just in… *** Blagojevich offers up another temporary funding plan *** RTA: No more temporary bailouts *** Comptroller says not all temporary bailout funds have even been disbursed yet to RTA/CTA ***

Thursday, Nov 1, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

* 10:06 am - Another secret plan perhaps? From a press release…

Prior to departing for Springfield for legislative negotiations, Governor Rod R. Blagojevich will hold an availability with the media to discuss his efforts to resolve the mass transit funding issue and avoid service cuts and fare hikes on Sunday.

WHO: Governor Rod R. Blagojevich

WHAT: Governor Blagojevich will hold media
availability in regards to mass transit funding.

WHEN: 12:00 pm

WHERE: Signature Flight Support O’Hare Airport (VIP
Room)
Patton Road, Building 800
Chicago, IL. 60666

* 10:28 am - This morning, the Pantagraph reported that military veterans were losing guard jobs at National Guard sites in Illinois. Ironically, according to a press release from the governor, November is “Hire a Vet Month”…

Building on his commitment to help the state’s Veterans get the opportunities they have bravely earned, Governor Rod R. Blagojevich today encouraged employers to hire the state’s military heroes during “Hire a Vet Month” in Illinois. The state will host several job fairs for Veterans this month and the Governor reminded employers of the new state income tax credit available of up to $600 for every qualified Veteran they hire.

* 10:30 am - Very, very bad news. A thousand high-paying factory jobs in Illinois are about to disappear…

On Thursday, Chrysler planned to announce the elimination of third shifts at the Toledo North plant in Ohio and the Belvidere plant in Illinois in the first quarter of 2008, according to two congressional aides with knowledge of the announcement. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The decisions will eliminate 750 jobs in the Toledo plant, which makes the Jeep Liberty and Dodge Nitro, and 1,000 jobs at the Belvidere plant, where Chrysler assembles the Dodge Caliber, Jeep Compass and Jeep Patriot.

* 11:36 am - From Save Chicago Transit, here’s the “big board” totals from the first mass transit bailout vote in the House. The bill was put on “Postponed Consideration” so there’s no official roll call on record. As you can see, even if the “absent” members return tomorrow, they still have a long way to go to get to three-fifths…

* 12:19 pm - The House is now in session. Listen here.

* 12:27 pm - The House is adjourning. That was quick. They’re headed to caucus now. Mass Transit Committee is meeting after the caucus.

* 12:47 pm - Every “insider” I talked to yesterday said the exact opposite of this report from WBBM Radio…

Despite some misgivings among House Republicans, the betting among insiders on both sides of the political aisle is that House Speaker Michael Madigan can win passage of a transit bill that contains a quarter of a percent hike in the regional sales tax.

We’ll see what the week brings. Madigan has been burning up the phones, but there are serious impediments ahead, including the governor’s 5 House Democratic “No” votes in Blagojevich’s pocket.

*** 1:00 pm *** Without providing specifics, Gov. Blagojevich told reporters today that he’ll come up with another short-term bailout for mass transit if a permanent solution isn’t approved by Sunday, the CTA’s “doomsday” deadline. Blagojevich reportedly said that permanent solution is looking less and less likely as the deadline approaches.

*** 1:59 pm *** From the AP…

Gov. Rod Blagojevich says he’s hoping he and legislative leaders can agree on a transportation bill.
But Blagojevich says - if they can’t - he has a contingency plan to give Chicago-area transit agencies the cash needed to avoid massive service cuts and fare increases slated to start Sunday.

The governor says there’s state money available to delay the crisis, but he stresses that the Regional Transportation Authority and the Chicago Transit Authority will have to accept the cash.

Crain’s…

“I was more optimistic at the beginning of the week,” CTA Chairman Carole Brown said Thursday at a news conference after an RTA board meeting. “As we get closer to Sunday, I’m getting more nervous.”

*** 2:00 pm *** Check this out from the Daily Herald…

RTA Executive Director Stephen Schlickman said the board will not support another stop-gap solution, such as temporary funding. Without the transit bill’s passage, he promised the RTA will pull the trigger Sunday as planned.

“I suspect there is a chance for additional votes, but I have no guarantee that it will actually pass,” he said this morning.

“I’m not feeling good at all. We’ve threatened all of our riders with poorer service for higher fares and I think, if we go forward with that, it’ll be an injustice to them.”

[UPDATED: OK, I may have misread his remarks. Still, it’s weird that they would rather see those fare hikes and poorer service go through than accept some money that (see below) they haven’t even received yet.]

*** 2:13 pm *** Well, this is interesting. Most of the original promised bailout money has not yet been distributed to the RTA, according to the comptroller’s office. From a Comptroller Dan Hynes letter to the governor dated October 25th…

As you are aware, our office issued payments for $37,318,100 to the RTA/CTA on September 20 as part of the agreement approved by the Board and authorized by [IDOT]. It was our office’s understanding… that an additional $54 million would be disbursed in two installments within the following two weeks as part of an additional advance…

To date, we have received no such request or any response from your staff to a recent inquiry on the issue…

You can download the complete letter here.

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Protected: SUBSCRIBERS ONLY - Doomsday; Gaming; Bradley; Workers Comp; Silence; Tifs; Assessment cap (Use all caps in password)

Thursday, Nov 1, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

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Question of the day

Thursday, Nov 1, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

First, the setup…

Congress put a temporary ban on Internet access taxes in 1998 to nurture what was then a fledgling industry. The idea: an Internet free from a tax burden would grow more quickly, encouraging a more productive U.S. economy.

The ban has been extended twice and would have expired Thursday but for an 11th-hour compromise between the House and Senate that will extend the moratorium for seven more years.

Interestingly enough, there was little enthusiasm to impose taxes on Internet service. You enjoy a tax break here you don’t enjoy for access to other communications, such as telephone and cable TV. But this went down to the wire because the Senate wanted to make the ban permanent and the House wanted to extend it just another four years. The Senate OKd the compromise by voice vote last week and the House voted 402-0 to go along Tuesday. President Bush signed the extension Wednesday. […]

The compromise spells out what Internet services would be off-limits for taxes, specifically prohibiting taxes on e-mail and instant messaging services “that are provided independently or not packaged with Internet access.” That leaves the door open to taxes on VOIP (Voice-Over-Internet Protocol) service. That seems fair, because it competes with traditional telephone service, which is subject to taxes. Congress isn’t looking to block local governments from tax sources they already tap. “It’s important to make sure that state and local governments are not deprived of revenues raised on services that have nothing to do with accessing the Internet,” said Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.), a sponsor of the compromise.

Now, the question: Should the Internet remain “tax free”? Explain.

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Mother Tribune morphs into New York Post

Thursday, Nov 1, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Bernie Schoenburg has react on the Tribune’s “recall” editorial from last Sunday…

“Governor Blagojevich is doing what he told people he would - coming to Springfield, fighting for working families including expanding access to healthcare and investing more money in education,” said spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch via e-mail.

She also passed along a statement from former GOP Gov. Jim Thompson, saying the Trib’s idea of adding recall would “introduce only more instability in state government and is not worthy of your editorial page.”

Thompson asks if other elected officials would also be subject to recall, and he questions the logic of blaming the governor for what lawmakers did not do.

“The last time I looked at the Illinois Constitution, the Governor had no power to initiate legislation or vote on its passage,” Thompson said.

“I am as disappointed as any other citizen at the lack of progress in Springfield,” Thompson wrote. “The Governor and the leaders of the General Assembly ought to sit down in the Mansion and not leave until they have come to a resolution of the challenges facing this state and its people, but the notion that we should amend our constitution to enable the removal of one official with one voice in the process is foolhardy and dangerous.”

* Kevin Robinson over at Chicagoist also had his doubts. Robinson first quoted the Illinois Constitution…

Whenever three-fifths of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly so direct, the question of whether a Constitutional Convention should be called shall be submitted to the electors at the general election next occurring at least six months after such legislative direction.

And then added…

This is the flaw with the Tribune’s logic. By their own admission, there is no way in hell the general assembly is going to call a constitutional convention: “it’s doubtful legislators could bring themselves to such drastic action.” Here’s a group of people that can’t even approve a budget. Which brings us back to the reason we are in this situation in the first place: the voters don’t really control the political process in this state. Until the people can put together a democratic movement to remove the governor from office, the General Assembly can’t be counted on. And unless the Tribune is going to make recall the centerpiece of their media activism, editorials like this are barely worth the paper (or pixels) they’re printed on.

I would add that since the governor was elected to a constitutionally mandated four-year term, it’s highly unlikely that even if the Constitution was changed he could be removed during this term.

Essentially, what the Trib did was take the weasel way out. The edit board never actually called for Blagojevich’s recall, they just listed a bill of indictment and then asked for comments about a solution that is likely impossible anyway. Then they hyped the angry responses they received in a tabloid-style self promotion blitz.

* Disappointingly, Chicago Public Radio is even getting into the Tribune-promotion act, belatedly discovering that Pat Quinn supports the recall concept…

Illinois Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn is making a push to let voters recall elected officials. Quinn’s announcement comes just days after the Chicago Tribune editorial board said Governor Rod Blagojevich should be recalled from office.

“Just days after”? Please.

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Reform and renewal, Part 8,764

Thursday, Nov 1, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller

* It’s not exactly clear to me what the heck is going on here. There’s a court hearing today, so we should know more after that’s over.

First, the Sun-Times lede…

Four months after receiving a subpoena for the results, an accounting firm hired by the Blagojevich administration refuses to turn over its audit of a company with ties to Gov. Blagojevich — and court documents reveal the administration is controlling the firm’s legal strategy.

In January, Blagojevich requested an audit of the state’s dealings with K.K. Bio-Science, whose owner, Anita Mahajan, was later charged with defrauding the state. Prosecutors say the audit could be used to bring additional charges against Mahajan and get millions back for Illinois.

But accounting firm Crowe Chizek still has not turned over the complete results, according to court documents and sources involved in the investigation.

* But the Tribune had this…

The governor’s office said Wednesday the records have been turned over. The monthslong delay was because the audit had not yet been completed “and an issue that arose over a provision of state law that prohibits the release of names for DCFS clients,” said Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff.

John Gorman, a spokesman for Cook County State’s Atty. Richard Devine, declined to elaborate on the court filing except to say, “We have had no difficulty receiving the information we sought.”

* Back to the Sun-Times…

The memo asserts an audit of K.K. Bio-Science’s contract with the Department of Children and Family Services has been complete since June. On Oct. 2, a lawyer for Crowe Chizek called Chmelar and said Blagojevich counsel Bill Quinlan Jr. “would handle compliance with the subpoena.”

And on “multiple occasions,” the memo states, “a representative from the Office of the Governor” contacted prosecutor Patricia Woulfe and said “he would direct Crowe to deliver the documents.”

But sources close to the investigation say that not all documents have been turned over. The subpoena ordered the firm to produce everything.

So, if not all documents have been turned over, then why is the state’s attorney saying there haven’t been any problems?

* Some background…

Anita Mahajan, who has had business ties to Gov. Blagojevich’s wife, used lucrative no-bid contracts to steal $2.1 million from taxpayers while lying about her company’s tax status, prosecutors said Thursday. […]

At her bond hearing hours earlier, prosecutors described the enviable position her firm, K.K. Bio-Science, held with the state until it shut down recently. The firm’s contracts with the Department of Children and Family Services “were completely disproportionate” to those of other firms performing the same services, assistant state’s attorney Patricia Woulfe said.

* More background…

A Chicago banker whose wife is accused of bilking millions from a no-bid state contract has helped raise more than a half million dollars for Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s campaigns since 2001.

Amrish Mahajan was a driving force behind his wife’s drug-screening company, now facing questions about how it kept its long-standing state contract despite troubles with taxes, licensing and years of alleged fraud.

A review of records and dozens of interviews reveal the company was built on Mahajan’s deep Chicago political connections and its government business grew along with his reputation as a power broker in the city’s Indian community.

* Back to today’s Tribune…

Prosecutors also have alleged Mahajan used some of the money from her state payments to buy property in Chicago and New York. In at least three of those purchases, Mahajan used Patricia Blagojevich as her agent, but there has been no suggestion the first lady was aware of the alleged scheme.

* Somewhat related stuff…

* State worker fired for leaking report attorney said

* Editorial: Secrecy hurts Inspector General system

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Morning shorts

Thursday, Nov 1, 2007 - Posted by Paul Richardson

* Even the state doesn’t know exactly what government does

* Vets losing guard jobs at state sites

* McQueary: Brick and mortar the stuff of dreams

* Superbugs at prisons a big fear

* Bethany Jaegar: Juvenile justice reform

* Editorial: On the inadequate IL juvenile justice system

* Tribune Editorial: The unreformed death penalty

Illinois has a moratorium on executions. The U.S. Supreme Court has effectively imposed a national moratorium until it decides whether the most common method of lethal injection used in the states violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

No system of capital punishment will be mistake-proof — ample reason to deny government its use. But the abolition of capital punishment will require a long and arduous campaign to move public opinion.

In the interim, in light of all that we know about the fallibility of capital punishment, the burden should be on death-penalty states to prove they can administer it far better than they have in the past. It’s a burden many of them still cannot meet.

* Ryan’s fate apparently sealed

* One last chance for Ryan

* Former IL governor ordered to prison

* Appeals court denies motion to keep Ryan out of prison

* Governor spreads the word on heating bill grants

* Schools ahead of the curve

* Student test performances by county

* Central IL schools hold their own on graduation rates

* High school juniors’ scores disappointing on state assessment tests

* Editorial: Test scores don’t best define success

* The need for student funding

* Districts put price on school aid cuts

* Editorial: People need to be involved in local races

* Luciano: A novel idea for LaHood’s donation

Earlier this fall, LaHood’s political fund donated $2,000 apiece to two of the three Republicans seeking the seat he is abdicating, Jim McConoughey and John Morris. By federal law, that’s the most he can give.

But by mid-October, he’d sent bupkis to Schock. Rumors started. Was LaHood sending a message? Picking favorites? Could it possibly be that someone in this world doesn’t love the young and fair Aaron?

Nope. LaHood said he’d be happy to send $2,000 Schock’s way - just as soon as Schock would formally announce his candidacy. That happened Saturday. LaHood sent his check.

* Jackson, Beavers clan prepare for another fight

In the weeks leading up to Sandi Jackson’s bid to unseat Beavers, her husband sought federal approval to channel funds from his congressional campaign into her ward battle against Beavers.

The congressman has asked the Federal Election Commission to address whether he can use his campaign funds on a local race “just to be safe,” his spokesman, Rick Bryant, said Wednesday.

The congressman’s Citizens for Jackson fund had $827,869 on hand as of Sept. 30.

* Daley takes the sweet out of his already sour budget

The mayor tightened the bureaucratic belt one more notch as aldermen introduced a flurry of property tax alternatives at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

They include: raising the fine for red-light camera violations from $90-to-$100; increasing from 15 cents to 25 cents a development fee on every square foot of buildable floor area; raising the city tax on consumers who purchase their natural gas from third-party providers and increasing — from 50 to 75 percent — a liquor tax hike that neighorhood bar owners are already screaming about.

Yet another proposal would cut in half — from a dime to a nickel — a proposed tax on each container of bottled water.

* Daley floating revenue ideas

* Daley agrees to ease condo inspections

* Museum bosses face scrutiny for not spending wisely

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