* It’s as if Gov. Quinn wants people to see that he’s trying to do something. But all he’s doing is further highlighting his utter failure…
Gov. Pat Quinn and Senate President John Cullerton have met to discuss stalemate over a solution to Illinois’ pension crisis, but House Speaker Michael Madigan didn’t show up.
Aides to all three leaders had no details on Tuesday’s roughly hour-long meeting in Quinn’s Chicago office. Neither Cullerton nor Quinn addressed reporters.
Quinn announced the meeting a day earlier.
On what planet does the governor look active and concerned in this scenario? Because on this planet, he looks ineffective and appears to be flailing.
The meeting was about optics, because nobody in their right mind believed that anything was ever going to get done. But it doesn’t take half a brain to predict that the optics would suck.
*** UPDATE *** Speaker Madigan did not call into the meeting. He and his staff weren’t informed that it was an option, according to his spokesman, who also posted in comments that the AP called him about what happened at the meeting before the meeting even ended.
The Illinois Press Association has come out in opposition to concealed-carry legislation the General Assembly approved last week on the grounds that a newly created licensing review board’s exemption from the Freedom of Information and Open Meetings acts is unwarranted. […]
The legislation, which establishes the state’s first-ever system for people to carry weapons in public, also creates a seven-member panel responsible for reviewing concealed-carry permit applications red-flagged by local law enforcement.
Absolute exclusion from both acts is effectively “sealing all records of the board,” not just the identity of concealed-carry permit applicants, which is not information the group is after, said Josh Sharp, the association’s director of government relations.
As the legislation is written currently, what’s discussed at the board’s meetings and when and where they are held is off-limits to the public, Sharp said. […]
“There has to be some public indication of the existence and operation of that public body,” Sharp said. “The way the bill is set … if the seven-member body wants to meet in one of their own basements at midnight and talk about denying someone a license, they could do that.”
Even financial decisions are exempt. The bill went way too far. But all the IPA is doing now is giving Gov. Quinn yet another reason to “rewrite to do right.”
And, just so none of you gun guys get all worked up, the IPA does not want names of applicants or permit holders disclosed. Take a breath.
Sen. Mark Kirk’s proposal for mass arrests to dismantle Chicago’s Gangster Disciples triggered a small protest outside his Chicago office Monday just as Rep. Bobby Rush — who dismissed the plan as an “upper-middle-class, white-boy solution” — announced that he will meet with Kirk on Tuesday to talk about the issue.
Kirk, a Republican from Highland Park, told reporters last week that he wanted the 18,000-strong Gangster Disciples crushed and would seek $30 million in federal money for the effort. Last month, Kirk told Fox News in Chicago that he favored a “mass pickup” of the Gangster Disciples and wanted to “put ‘em all in the Thomson correctional facility,” which Illinois sold to the federal government last year.
Sen. Kirk’s proposal to aim massive federal police powers at the Gangster Disciples is probably a good idea. The gangs have to be broken. Drug legalization would probably do far more to hurt the gangs, but there’s no doubt that the gangs have way too much influence and they need to be attacked. The federal government shut down Boston after terrorists set off two bombs. There was an overwhelming Chicago police response when some kids decided to cause trouble on Michigan Ave. But persistent lawless behavior in poor neighborhoods too often gets short shrift.
However, Sen. Kirk’s hyperbole about rounding up all the gang members and putting them into prisons was downright stupid. Do we make everybody on the South and West Sides wear special ID badges? Do we create concentration camps to handle all the new inmates? Where does it end? Does some 12 year old selling individual cigarettes on the corner get rounded up with the murderers? Kirk really needs to disavow the idea. This is America. We don’t roll that way.
* Bill Daley told the Tribune he may announce his intentions for governor within a “week or so” because of the spring session pension debacle…
“I’m more seriously considering this by virtue of the debacle that seemed to happen with this legislative session,” said Daley, who said he will let his intentions be known about running for governor within a week.
Daley said a dynamic leader would have brought together the two differing plans put forth by fellow Democrats Madigan and Cullerton rather than leave Springfield with a stalemate.
“They both had different ideas on this bill. So who’s the one who’s supposed to forge a compromise? The governor,” Daley said.
He’s exactly right, of course. When two legislative leaders are at loggerheads, it’s up to the governor to sort things out. Quinn can’t do that. He’s just too weak.
“I’m just stunned that this place is totally dysfunctional,” Daley said of the statehouse. “We have a governor who is like an observer, ‘It’s the legislature’s fault.’ Well, the legislature is supposed to compromise by virtue of the governor bringing the compromise together.” […]
“Squeezy the Python was there, and he couldn’t squeeze anybody,” Daley said, referencing Quinn’s cartoon character designed to illustrate how pension costs squeeze money from state programs. “The governor couldn’t squeeze anybody. . . . Is that how things are going to work? We’re looking at another five years of this? I don’t think so.”
* It’s no surprise that Sheila Simon’s family name and her statewide position are helping her in the early polling for attorney general. But she only has 26 percent at this point. Not great. And half the electorate is undecided, although with all the men talking about a run, she’s looking good there, too. From a Celinda Lake poll…
On the initial ballot, Simon garners 26% of the vote, with
all other likely candidates in the single digits
David Hoffman draws 5%,
Kwame Raoul 4%,
Jesse Ruiz 2%, and Jack Franks 1%.
Fully 50% of the electorate is undecided, underscoring the room for movement in this race.
Fully 58% of the primary electorate is female, including 66% of the undecided vote. This demographic profile obviously benefits Simon as the only woman in the race.
The poll, conducted by Lake Research Partners (the same pollster used by Lisa Madigan), shows that likely Democratic primary voters have a 43 percent favorable rating of Simon (7 percent unfavorable, the remaining no opinion or unknown) and 73 percent of Democratic voters have a favorable opinion of Sheila Simon’s late father — U.S. Sen. Paul Simon.
Notice how Simon continually tries to lock herself to Lisa Madigan. She’s doing this in fundraising calls as well.
* Other than the fact that she’s a former Miss America, I’m not sure how Erika Harold makes the case in a GOP primary that she should replace freshman Republican Rodney Davis…
Miss America 2003 Erika Harold, announced she’s running for Congress in Illinois’ 13th district on Tuesday, and is the second former Miss America eyeing a Capitol Hill career.
Yeah, she’ll get plenty of early publicity. “Miss America runs for Congress! Pretty pictures!” But Rodney Davis works very hard. He’s everywhere in that district. He’s got something like $300K in the bank.
Harold’s announcement has been rumored for a while, but with the aid of two of former Congressman Tim Johnson’s staffers - Mark Sheldon and John Dykstra - it appears she’s been in the process of setting up a campaign for a while. […]
After various failed attempts to confirm from Harold, we found confirmation on the Facebook page of Joan Dykstra, the wife of former Congressman Tim Johnson’s staffer John Dykstra Monday afternoon.
A bunch of Johnson’s guys need jobs and relevance. Plain and simple.
The only thing this candidacy could do is rough Davis up a bit in advance of the general election. The circular firing squad strikes again. Fire, ready, aim!
* The Trib says that the concealed carry bill has been sent to the governor. Actually, it hasn’t yet been transmitted. It’s still in the House. The chamber can hold onto it for up to 30 days. I’m told that this is probably just a paperwork thing.
Whatever the case, the June 9th deadline is rapidly approaching and now the attorney general wants a delay to help the governor. Games are definitely afoot…
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has filed a request with a federal appeals court asking for an additional 30 days to put in place a law that would allow citizens to carry guns in public.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave the state until June 9 to come up with concealed carry rules when it struck down Illinois’ longtime ban in December. Last week, lawmakers passed a measure setting out who could carry guns and where, but Madigan argues that Gov. Pat Quinn should have more time to review the legislation before deciding whether to sign it into law.
The state constitution gives the governor 60 calendar days from the time a bill is sent to his desk to act before it would automatically become law.
“The request for an additional 30 days would allow the governor a reasonable amount of time to fulfill his state constitutional duties,” Madigan said in a statement.
“We think the request for a 30-day stay is appropriate,” Quinn spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said. “The bill has not yet arrived. Ordinarily, under the Illinois Constitution, the governor has 60 days to review a bill upon its arrival.”
Last week, the governor’s office would only say Quinn intends to “review” the legislation but would not offer any sense of the governor’s leanings on the legislation.
The plan that was fast-tracked through the House and Senate last week was a compromise deal that preserves existing local gun laws, including Chicago and Cook County’s bans on assault weapons, and keeps gun owners from carrying their loaded weapons on public trains and buses.
Discuss.
*** UPDATE *** From the gun guys’ response to Madigan’s motion…
1. Defendants’ motion is unauthorized by the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, plainly presented for dilatory reasons, fails to fully disclose the relevant factual circumstances, and otherwise lacks merit. Considering that the state’s remedial legislation passed with overwhelming veto-proof majorities in both houses, as well as the Governor’s deep and protracted involvement in this issue, the time for delay is over. This Court has spoken. The People of Illinois, through their representatives, have spoken. There must be some finality to this process. The motion should be denied.
I told my newsletter subscribers several weeks ago that, without a doubt, if Senate President John Cullerton caved in to House Speaker Michael Madigan on pension reform, Cullerton’s legacy as Madigan’s junior partner would be forever sealed.
The two men have battled for months over the proper way to proceed. Cullerton has said that the state Constitution requires that public workers and retirees be given a set of options before their pension benefits can be reduced. Madigan has said that idea doesn’t save enough money and he has looked for the most cost savings possible. With the pension system at $100 billion in unfunded liability and taxpayer costs rising by about a billion dollars a year, this has become the most important state fiscal issue of our time. It has to be resolved.
I ran into Madigan not long after I wrote that stuff about Cullerton’s possible cave.
“Rich, you’re not helping,” he said to me.
I told him that I wasn’t here to help. It’s not that I’m here to screw things up, either, I explained, but I just felt I had to call things as I saw them. Besides, I said, it was true. Cullerton has so forcefully argued in favor of his own, more likely constitutional pension reform plan that I didn’t see how he could walk himself back and still save face. And neither did anyone else I knew.
Several days later, after Madigan killed Cullerton’s concealed carry bill by plucking off two Senate votes, I ran into Madigan at a Springfield restaurant. I told him that Cullerton was in the building with some of his members. Maybe, I teased Madigan, he could go tell the Senate President how he was gonna kill another one of Cullerton’s bills.
“Rich, you’re not helping,” was Madigan’s reply.
Last week, a higher up in the governor’s office reached out to me and asked me if I would please, pretty please with sugar on top not rile up Cullerton on pension reform again before the spring session’s final adjournment. They wanted cooler heads to prevail. They needed Cullerton to calm down and find a way out of this impasse.
But, then after the Senate killed Madigan’s pension reform bill on a vote of 16-42 (seven fewer “Yes” votes than a similar bill had received earlier in the month), Madigan told the Chicago Sun-Times that the roll call showed “a lack of leadership” in the Senate.
So, who’s “not helping” now? How the heck did an attack like that move the ball forward? How did that keep things calm?
Pressure built on Cullerton to just adjourn his chamber and announce that the Senate had completed its job by sending the House a union-backed pension reform bill. Madigan has played that game before with the budget, so some demanded that Cullerton give Madigan a taste of his own medicine on pension reform.
Nobody ever figured that Cullerton would actually do that, however. The Senate President has tried mightily to avoid the often disastrous House vs. Senate feuds that plagued his predecessor Emil Jones, and at times so undermined Jones that he couldn’t function.
Cullerton remained mostly on the high road, but nothing got done. He dismissed Madigan’s direct and seemingly personal attack, saying he just figured that Madigan was “disappointed” in the Senate’s roll call. He adjourned his chamber on the last night of session without demanding that Madigan pass the Senate’s pension reform bill.
Cullerton had been planning to pass at least one of three pension reform bills that the House sent the Senate back in March. Two, a cap on pensionable income at the Social Security cap and a House bill to cut annual pension cost of living increases, were both under consideration.
The idea, apparently, was to get something to the Illinois Supreme Court to see if any pension benefit changes could get final approval.
But Rep. Elaine Nekritz, Madigan’s point-person on pension reform and the sponsor of those two pension bills, told me that the bills on their own would be clearly unconstitutional and that she would urge the Illinois courts to reject them if either were signed into law. The individual pension reforms had to be included in a larger package, she said, to make the case that state “police powers” had to be used to solve the funding crisis.
Cullerton dropped the whole idea after I told my subscribers what Nekritz said.
I guess maybe I didn’t help. But that ain’t my job.
* Bill Daley was interviewed by the Chicago Tribune this week. We’ll talk more about that interview later today, but I wanted to start with the end of the piece…
Daley also lashed out at the legislature for failing to approve gay marriage legislation, especially when President Barack Obama urged passage during a fundraising stop last week in Chicago. “It’s crazy,” Daley said.
Obama, having served as a state senator, could have been asked to personally lobby some of his former colleagues to help pick up the votes needed to pass gay marriage, Daley said.
Proponents repeatedly tried to get President Obama and his the First Lady to make some calls. They never got through.
But, here’s a thought. Didn’t Bill Daley serve as Obama’s chief of staff? Couldn’t he have called his old boss and asked for an intervention?
Daley could’ve been a hero. Instead, he’s a clueless brick thrower.
* Meanwhile, WBBM Radio was teasing this story hard yesterday while I was driving to Chicago…
There’s a movement to bar Illinois politicians from the Pride Parade later this month.
In the beginning, there was Jane Byrne.
And then more and more politicians joined the Gay Pride Parade in Chicago. It was a place to be seen and curry favor among a well-heeled community.
But with the gay marriage bill mired in Springfield quicksand, some in the gay community – and their supporters – have signed on to an online petition on change.org that wants to ban Illinois politicians from the parade June 30.
Turns out, there were only 500 petition signers. This is a story? Really? Maybe it’s a factoid buried at the end of a piece, but a story on its own? You gotta be kidding me.
* A month ago, at least some were saying that Speaker Madigan was pushing pension reform to help his daughter. Greg Hinz…
I conclude that major pension reform, though not guaranteed, is really moving now. And then, we can get to the inevitable legal challenges — and a race for governor by Mr. Madigan’s daughter, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who really would like to be able to run without the race focusing on Daddy’s pension failure.
* Now, though, pension reform didn’t pass because of Lisa Madigan, according to several. Tribune…
The governor has been unable to win reforms even with Democrats holding veto-proof majorities in both the House and Senate, leading some at the Capitol to wonder whether the inaction is chaos by design as Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan weighs a possible primary election challenge to Quinn.
I, for one, don’t think that the Speaker wants his daughter to run for governor. Too much heat. Too much light. Too many problems.
But whatever the case, people just need to stop sucking their thumbs so much here. The truth is that if pension reform passed, it would be about Lisa. Now that it has failed, it’s about Lisa. People see exactly what they want to see.
Fitch Ratings said it dropped the Illinois rating from “A’’ to “A-” based on lawmakers’ failure to enact a solution to the state’s public employee pension crisis. The agency graded $27.5 billion in bond debt backed by general tax revenues.
Illinois already has the lowest rating in the nation. Lower ratings mean paying higher interest rates on borrowed money. […]
“The burden of large unfunded pension liabilities and growing annual pension expenses is unsustainable, and that failure to achieve reform measures despite the substantial focus on this topic exacerbates concern about management’s willingness and ability to address the state’s numerous fiscal challenges,” Fitch wrote in a statement.
The other two agencies, Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, could be close behind. After Friday’s adjournment, Moody’s said it was “analyzing Illinois’ fiscal condition,” noting that it had said in a March report that “the state’s rating could drop if there was a failure to enact pension reforms.”
* Gov. Pat Quinn’s react…
“Today’s downgrade is no surprise. As I have repeatedly made clear to the General Assembly, this will continue to happen until legislators pass a comprehensive pension reform bill, and put it on my desk.
“Every time the General Assembly misses the deadline, Illinois’ credit rating is downgraded, which hurts our economy, wastes taxpayer dollars and shortchanges the education of our children.
“If I could issue an Executive Order to resolve the pension crisis, I would have done it a long time ago. But I cannot act alone. Legislators must send me a bill to get this job done.
“I plan to meet with the Speaker of the House and the Senate President tomorrow.
“I will keep fighting for pension reform until it is the law of the land.”
The Speaker is out of state, however. He may call in.
* From the We Are One Illinois coalition…
“Today’s downgrade was totally avoidable. Before it adjourned, the House could have passed Senate Bill 2404 — a fair, constitutional, comprehensive pension funding solution.
Instead, Speaker Michael Madigan pushed SB 1, an unconstitutional bill that would have saved nothing and done nothing to help the state’s credit rating once overturned. An overwhelming, bipartisan majority of state senators saw through SB 1 and voted to reject it twice.
The Senate, led by President John Cullerton, did its job. Its bill, SB 2404, would save the state $32 billion immediately—-more than the Madigan plan—without jeopardizing the retirement systems’ Social Security exemption. The House must now finish its work and pass SB 2404 as soon as it reconvenes. House members and Illinois citizens have been demanding a vote for weeks—the time is now.”
Republican Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington questioned the ability of Quinn and Democratic leaders to strike a deal on their own, saying two years of confabs have yet to produce a solution. He wants Quinn to call a special session, saying the initial costs of paying for lawmakers’ per diems will be far less than the continued drain on the pension system.
“I don’t see the legislative leaders meeting coming up with the solution,” said Brady, who lost to Quinn in the 2010 governor’s race and plans to announce whether he’s running again by month’s end. “It’s going to take the pressure of the rank-and-file members. President Cullerton and Speaker Madigan are too far apart on this, I think it’s going to take the members to bring them together, and frankly, a strong governor making us stay in Springfield until we solve this.”
Any bill with an immediate effective date will need a three-fifths majority to pass. Other than Cullerton’s bill, that’s pretty much impossible.
Dorgan has his work cut out for him. As party chair, he will be asked to raise money, recruit candidates and deliver a message to both the Republican base and key groups like women and minorities who now strongly back Democrats. No wonder even some in the G-O-P call the state party chair the “worst job in Illinois.” But Dorgan takes exception ton those who say the party is broken.
DORGAN “Well the party’s not broke. We’ve had some growing pains right now. We’re ready. We’re united and we;re going to move forward and show people there is a two party system.”
Rich Williamson of Kenilworth, Republican National Committeeman from Illinois and co-chairman of the selection effort, said Dorgan was elected on the first ballot. Asked if the vote was unanimous, he just repeated that the weighted vote of central committee members went Dorgan’s way on the first try.
Another candidate for the chairmanship, former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, R-McHenry, made it clear to the committee in his speech that he did not expect to be picked. But he also warned against picking someone who would be seen by grassroots Republicans and tea party members as an insider. He said after the speech that he thought Dorgan was in that unacceptable category.
“He’s a lobbyist,” Walsh said. “He’s somebody who can play both sides of the aisle. That is not what the Republican Party needs. That would just devastate grassroots supporters in the state.”
Dorgan has long been involved in Republican politics, beginning as an aide to the late Rep. Roger McAuliffe, who long held the designation as the only Republican legislator from Chicago. Dorgan also served as deputy chief of staff to former House Speaker Lee Daniels and as an aide to Gov. Jim Thompson and director of the Liquor Control Commission under Gov. Jim Edgar.
But Dorgan also has close ties to Illinois’ ruling Democrats. He founded a lobbying practice with James McPike, a former majority leader for House Speaker Michael Madigan, who doubles as Illinois Democratic Party chairman.
The firm’s clients include Ameren, AT&T, Fairmount Park race track, the Illinois Hospital Association and the Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association, a group formerly headed by Bill Cellini, who is now serving prison time after being convicted of federal corruption charges.
* The Question: Despite the obvious structural handicaps inherent with the IL GOP, do you think Dorgan will do a good job as state party chairman? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please.
Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford kept his plans for pension reform and the state’s income tax rate close to the vest Sunday, but he did make one vow Springfield residents should like.
Rutherford, a Republican from Chenoa, said during a stop in Springfield to announce his gubernatorial candidacy that he would live at the Executive Mansion if elected the next governor of Illinois.
Jim Thompson, Jim Edgar and George Ryan all lived outside the mansion at one time or the other. It makes no difference. You can be a good governor and not live at that mansion.
As for the state’s pension crisis, he said there were elements of the dueling reform plans passed in the House and Senate this spring that he liked, but he declined to say if he supported one over the other.
Rutherford also did not rule out extending the state’s income tax increase, which is scheduled to expire at the end of 2014.
“Let’s put (the income tax rate hike) on the table and negotiate the whole thing out,” Rutherford said. “What they did two years ago was a bad deal. I’ve learned you don’t agree to one thing until the rest of it comes along. They raised taxes and didn’t fix the problem.”
Rutherford opposes gay marriage but supports civil unions, he said.
He ought to say where he is on pensions. And that’s an interesting comment on the income tax, although I’m not really sure what it means…
“Put it on the table. When I take that oath of office in January 2015, that income tax increase is going to have to be on the table for discussion and debate,” Rutherford says. “And I will tell you what, I will not sign any income tax increase that doesn’t fix the problem of Illinois.”
And the failure to approve the gay marriage bill hurts Republicans far more than it hurts Democrats. The GOPs wanted it resolved so they could move forward and ignore the issue. It ain’t, so they can’t.
The son of pizza shop owners, Rutherford said he worked his way through college and graduated without debt. After he was elected to the Illinois House in 1993, Rutherford kept a private sector job with ServiceMaster, which operates brands like Terminix and TruGreen.
“I learned to work with people,” he said. “I worked with people of different religions, different skin colors, different customs and different cultures.”
The dual themes — hard work and an embrace of diversity — were apparent throughout the campaign event.
In introducing Rutherford, Steve Kim, who ran unsuccessfully for attorney general in 2010, said “no one” would work harder as governor.
Kim joked that a friend once asked if Rutherford was Korean because “he’s on Korean radio all the time.” As Kim spoke, Rutherford, who is single and has no children, stood behind the lectern, flanked by relatives and a multicultural array of friends.
“You go to Chinatown and you’re going to think he’s a movie star,” Kim said. “His picture is in every bank, it’s in every beauty salon, it’s in every restaurant.”
* And he has a message that some commenters here can probably relate to…
Rutherford said Sunday he has a track record of reaching out to people and communities “with different colors and ethnicities … and also with other beliefs.” He said the Republican Party and other GOP candidates need to do the same.
“My party’s not been that good at it,” he said. “You don’t have to be with someone 100 percent of the time to be a good Republican. I understand that there are people that have a different position on the social issues than some, and they are still good Republicans.”
Rutherford, a Pontiac native, said his experience in the private and public sectors make him qualified and so far, he is the only Republican who’s already won a statewide office who will run. He was elected treasurer in 2010 and served as a state representative and state senator for years. Before entering politics he was an executive with Service Master Co, based in suburban Downers Grove.
“I do have government experience, but I’m not a career politician,” he said. “I’m the only Republican that has won statewide that is looking to run for governor. I’m the guy to win.”
For reasons we don’t pretend to know, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton on Friday struck yet another of their serial blows at Illinois taxpayers and the insolvent state government we’re all obliged to finance.
If you live here, this minuet of failure will cost you. Because with their inability to agree on pension reform, Madigan and Cullerton are dooming all the people of Illinois to more of the same: employers who look elsewhere, a jobless rate among America’s highest, runaway public debts that taxpayers do have to pay.
Hey, Tribsters, you could’ve had a very strong pension reform bill weeks ago. But you editorialized against it.
The Tribune and its big business pals like Ty Fahner figured they could roll Senate President John Cullerton, so they killed his bill that included all the pension reforms they ever could’ve wanted. Their problem? The bill also included Cullerton’s reforms, which wouldn’t kick in unless and until the Madigan language was struck down by the courts.
But, no. That wasn’t good enough. It had to be their way or the highway. All or nothing. Cullerton absolutely had to cave. So, a very reasonable compromise died. And now the Trib wants to blame everybody else.
* The Sun-Times also editorialized against Cullerton’s combo compromise and now wails its disappointment…
What a bunch of losers.
And we, the people of Illinois, will pay the price.
Our flailing statesmen in Springfield struck out again Friday, but not before whipping a wicked foul ball into the stands.
The Illinois General Assembly failed to pass a desperately needed bill to rein in public employee pension costs. So what if the state goes bust?
Um, Sun-Times, “statesmen” look for compromises to end gridlock. Cullerton did exactly that and you rebuked him.
Gov. Pat Quinn, who has beaten the drum for pension reform since taking office in 2009, lashed out at the state Legislature’s two Democratic leaders for engaging in a “game” that failed this spring to solve the state’s nearly $100 billion pension crisis.
“The people of Illinois want the General Assembly to put comprehensive pension reform on my desk,” Quinn said in a prepared statement after the Illinois House adjourned for the summer. “They do not want legislative leaders to play a $17 million-a-day game with the future of our state, our children and our economy.”
Quinn mocked efforts by House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) for entertaining a legislative bid by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to secure a two-year break from making pension payments to the Chicago teachers retirement fund.
“There is something wrong in Illinois when the speaker of the House and the president of the Senate could join together to propose a pension holiday for Chicago, yet they could not send a comprehensive pension reform bill to my desk,” the governor said.
Yes, there’s something very wrong in Illinois. We have a governor who can’t govern.
* Harmon says special session to fix pension mess not likely: “We’ve been taken hostage before. It doesn’t ever work out terribly well,” said Sen. Don Harmon (D-Oak Park), a member of Senate President John Cullerton’s (D-Chicago) leadership team.
* Madigan: ‘This is a session where we have not enjoyed a great deal of success’
* Pension quagmire deepens — for lawmakers and taxpayers: What I do know is this: It now till take supermajority 60 percent vote of the General Assembly to pass any pension plan that will take effect before July 1, 2014 — the same General Assembly that last week couldn’t pass any pension bill through either House by a simple majority. And the elections clock is ticking.
* The petulance of a weekend Windy City Times editorial about the failure of the gay marriage bill rivals that of the worst Tribune efforts on pensions. Let’s take a look at their goofier points…
[Rep. Greg Harris] made promises he could not keep. In politics, that can be a reason to step down. Harris, who has dedicated his career to LGBT and AIDS issues, deserves the chance to prove his strategy right. If he wins, we all win, and that is all that matters. But if he does not succeed in passing this in the veto session this fall, he should not run for re-election in 2014. To be clear, this is not a call for Harris to resign, but he will have lost the trust of the people he made commitments to, and it is very difficult to lead once that trust is gone.
In addition, Harris should step down now as chief sponsor of this legislation. He has proven he is tone deaf to the wishes of both the grassroots and leadership of this community. They almost all called for a vote “no matter what.” Instead, Harris chose to give cover to his political colleagues, rather than follow through on his own on-the-record promise to call for a vote by May 31.
Why did a vote matter now? Because for months, no hard count has been possible on who really was for or against this bill. This limbo caused confusion and depleted valuable resources lobbying dozens more representatives than necessary.
Harris said he has promises from certain reps they will vote for the bill this fall, but we have seen how political promises pan out.
What’s not clear is if it would have failed if the legislators had been forced to be on record. Several legislators said they believe some of their colleagues would have changed to “yes”—and indeed in other cities and states this has been the case. With four openly gay and lesbian representatives in the Illinois House as their colleagues, they have a much greater understanding of this battle.
Harris has said from Day One that he wouldn’t call the bill until he had the votes. Period. End of story.
Not to mention that calling a bill without enough votes to pass usually does a lot more harm than good. Just because a handful of political amateurs demand a vote so they can have a little closure doesn’t mean it should be done. This line of attack is completely absurd, particularly since the roll call was so far from passage by Friday that no last-minute switches would’ve helped. Instead, if history is any guide, the vote would’ve gone backwards. And that would’ve hurt far more.
Also, Rep. Harris is by far the most committed and able sponsor that marriage proponents will ever hope to get. Demanding that he give up sponsorship is unbelievably short-sighted. And demanding that he not run for reelection if he doesn’t pass the bill is just plain stupid and self-defeating.
The biggest difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is the Democrats don’t allow their radical activist base to dictate strategy or tactics. This editorial, and the sentiment behind it, will undoubtedly be ignored.
* And blaming Harris ignores a whole lot of other problems. For instance…
Mounting pressure from the Chicago archdiocese and the African American Clergy Coalition is believed be partially responsible for the sudden lack of votes needed to pass the bill. Bishop Larry Trotter put out a statement which reads in part”
“Pastor James Meeks, Bishop Lance Davis and I are so proud of the God fearing Black Caucus members who withstood the pressure of the LGBT forces and allowed God’s word concerning marriage to remain between one man and one woman in Illinois,”
Before adjourning Friday night, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan did sign an extension, which now has August 31 as the deadline to pass the bill. If Governor Pat Quinn were to call a special summer session, the bill could be voted on then, otherwise it may have to wait until the fall.
* Related…
* Gay marriage bill fails to go to vote in Illinois House: Harris said efforts weren’t helped by Quinn’s repeated demands to call the bill in recent weeks. Quinn insisted there were enough votes to pass the bill, a situation Harris noted could peel votes off if lawmakers felt their “yes” wasn’t needed to get the measure over the top.
* Same-sex marriage sponsor vows to press ahead after blowback for not seeking House vote
* One of the greatest things about last week’s passage of a concealed carry bill is that I won’t have to deal with all the um, shall we say, ultra intense commenters who only post here on that topic. I think I’ve banned more people for life on this topic than all other subjects combined.
…Adding…Some of our newbie visitors are more than a little unclear on the concept. I am a FOID card holder and a gun owner. I plan to apply for a concealed carry permit. I did not personally or publicly oppose the concealed carry bill. I deleted and/or banned so many people on this topic because so many folks were rabid know-nothings.
Of course, that assumes the governor will sign the bill into law. He most certainly doesn’t want ownership of this bill and he’s never been a pro-gunner. His reelection strategy can be summed up in two words: Cook County. Large, veto-proof majorities don’t always sway him, either. He vetoed the most recent ComEd bill despite its super-majority passage, for instance.
* And keep in mind that the governor made a ban on large gun magazines a top priority for the final week of session. It failed in the Senate. The governor wasn’t happy…
Governor Pat Quinn released the following statement on the Illinois Senate’s failure to pass House Bill 1346, a bill that would prohibit the sale of high capacity ammunition magazines in Illinois.
“I met with the families of Newtown, Conn., as did many lawmakers, and we have seen the devastation that high capacity ammunition magazines have done to families across our nation.
“Today lawmakers had the opportunity to minimize the chance of this unthinkable violence happening in Illinois.
“I am very disappointed that members did not pass common sense legislation that would have no impact on hunting.
“I will continue to fight for limits on high capacity ammunition magazines in our state.”
Might we see one of those “Rewrite to Do Right” moves that helped make Rod Blagojevich so unpopular with the General Assembly? Time will tell.
* The Illinois State Rifle Association’s president is still laying low about the concealed carry particulars…
The bottom line up front is that anyone who feels that the war has now been won is sorely mistaken. The government of Illinois is not any less anti-gun today than it was at this time last year. Passage of this concealed carry bill has not transformed Illinois into Texas by any stretch of the imagination. While the concealed carry bill has left gun owners feeling lukewarm, the gun control movement is boiling mad. You can expect the gun controllers and their friends in the legislature’s anti-gun caucus to come back at us with a vengeance. You better believe that the gun-grabbers will make sure that the road to concealed carry implementation a rocky one. You better believe that the gun controllers will redouble their efforts to make private firearm ownership too expensive and too impractical for the average citizen.
As I write this letter to you, the ISRA’s team of attorneys and legislative analysts are pouring over the concealed carry bill to evaluate both the obvious and the more subtle ramifications contained in the bill’s language. I will not speak to the details of the bill until that analysis is complete. However, it is important that you understand that the bill affects all gun owners - whether they decide to apply for concealed carry or not. There is no illusion that this legislative solution to the court order was arrived at in an atmosphere of trust. Therefore, at this juncture, we are not entirely sure whether the concealed carry bill is an honest effort to enhance your security, or a gun control Trojan Horse that endangers your right to keep and bear arms. When we have a better understanding of the bill and its implications, I will issue further communication with you.
Cheering the bill on would only aggravate the governor even further, so at least they have the sense to withhold their jubilation.
* Before we get to the thud of a session ending, how about we start the week of hostile recriminations on a positive note?
Oscar the Puppy graduated from training school over the weekend. My mom asked if he matriculated with honors. “Of course,” I told her. “He’s a Miller”…
