Unsolicited advice
Thursday, Feb 6, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sen. Mattie Hunter has introduced a bill to ban almost all red-light cameras in the state, including for home-rule units. Here’s Neal Earley at the Sun-Times…
“It’s clear that the red-light camera program has been sustained and expanded by corruption,” state Sen. Mattie Hunter Hunter said in a statement. “Traffic laws should be driven by safety, not bribery, shakedowns or the need to boost revenue.” […]
A spokesman for SafeSpeed said the Legislature should reform the red-light camera program, not end it.
“The legislature’s response to the news of Martin Sandoval’s corruption should not be to terminate red-light camera programs, which have been proven to save lives and increase public safety,” said Dennis Culloton, a spokesman for SafeSpeed. “Instead, SafeSpeed fully supports legislation that would reform the industry and ensure the highest levels of ethics by officials and businesses.” […]
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that we need a full review of the red-light camera program in Illinois,” Harmon said in a statement. “I plan to talk to my colleagues to see how to best address this issue.”
If SafeSpeed wants to survive, it needs to work with credible reformers and get behind some real changes, like prohibiting people who work for state and local governments from its sales team.
As I suggested to subscribers several days ago, if everyone marketing red-light cameras to local governments were required to register as lobbyists, then they couldn’t, by law, be paid on commission, and we’d have the added benefit of knowing exactly who they all are.
* Also, IDOT has way too much lee-way in deciding where the cameras can be placed…
IDOT’s policy has always stated cameras “should be installed only where a safety problem … has been documented.”
But IDOT says the word “should” gives it wiggle room.
“It does not say ’shall’ or ‘will’ be installed only where a safety problem has been documented, but ’should,’” IDOT spokesman Guy Tridgell said in an email.
Agency officials said approvals are done on a case-by-case basis and that crashes are just one factor. IDOT policies allow a permit if a mayor and police chief write letters stating there is a “perceived safety problem due to red light running,” even if there were few crashes there.
Truly reform or you may find yourself out of business.
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* You can click the pics to see the full mailers, but two of Rush Darwish’s pieces in the 3rd Congressional District Democratic primary have contained this reference to candidate Marie Newman…
I gotta say, this made me uncomfortable, particularly since the hit was coupled with a slam on Rahm Emanuel, who is Jewish.
* So, I asked the Darwish campaign why the pro-Israel thing was worthy of inclusion. The response…
From our Baseline Survey, conducted late October 2019
If your next Representative in Congress could only have one of the following traits, which is more important to you?
29% A Congressperson who is being supported by Pro-Israel PACs and whose foreign policy reflects this support.
71% A Congressperson whose foreign policy will reflect the views of his or her constituents, keeping in mind that the 3rd District has the largest Palestinian-American community in the United States.
From our Tracking Survey, conducted January 15- 20, 2020:
Marie Newman claims to be progressive, but political insiders like the former head of Rahm Emanuel’s SuperPAC are raising big money for her. J Street PAC members have also raised nearly $100,000 for Newman. That’s why the majority of Marie Newman’s donors are wealthy elites from outside the 3rd District.
More likely to vote for Dan Lipinski: 24%
More likely to vote for Marie Newman: 12%
More likely to vote for Rush Darwish: 33%
Doesn’t impact my view: 31%
I reached out three different ways to the Newman campaign and haven’t yet heard back.
Your thoughts on this tactic?
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* Will Stephens had retiring Rep. Dave McSweeney (R-Barrington Hills) on his WXAN Radio show today. Here’s McSweeney…
Will, thanks for having me on. Always an adventure in the state of Illinois. We have a new scandal that’s breaking in the capital. There was a cover-up about member misconduct. That’s not Jack Franks, it’s actually an issue that I’ve been focused on since last May. There was a buried report by the Legislative Inspector General about wrongdoing. The Ethics Commission that’s made up of other members buried the report. I’ve been calling on Jim Durkin to tell us what he knows about it. The chairman of the commission is on his leadership team and we have way too many scandals in this state. We need to fight corruption and we need to start with the General Assembly.
As everyone knows, McSweeney and Franks worked together on several bills. McSweeney, like most everyone else, didn’t know what was going on when the investigation was announced. Instead of focusing on Franks, though, he went after Durkin. And he went even further in a statement to me this week…
It’s time for Jim Durkin to come clean about improper activity that he is aware of. Specifically, I call on Jim Durkin to release all personnel files on John Anthony, Ron Sandack and Nick Sauer. We must be the party of transparency.
* Here’s Will from later in the program…
I asked this question here many times over the last few months, and that is: Of what benefit is Mike Madigan as Speaker of the Illinois House? Of what benefit does he provide Illinois Democratic elected officials at this point? Now that there is so much scandal swirling around and it seems as if the federal authorities are moving ever closer to him, day by day, how much longer can he hold on to that position? And what benefit is it to Democrats for him to hold on to that position?
* McSweeney’s response and interchange…
What we need to do as a party is stand for something so that we can actually take control of the Statehouse. That’s what I have been focused on, a message of lower taxes, less spending, real reform. Instead, we have leadership of Jim Durkin, who supported doubling the gas tax, was part of a cover-up now with legislator misconduct, has been there for 25 years. And we have Bill Brady in the Senate who actually makes money as a quote unquote consultant for video poker interests.
So to answer your question, I’m focused on getting the Republican Party to pick up seats, but we need to change our leadership on top. And that’s what I’ve been fighting for, for a long time. We need to stand for something. That’s what I have been fighting for, again, lower taxes, less spending, real reform. That’s what we need. And I have the specific plan around that, cutting the tax rates and reducing the property tax levies and reforming Medicaid and public employee pensions. So to answer your question specifically, the way things could change is if the Republican Party stands for something, we change leaders, and we take control of the House, that’s what I’m focused on.
Stephens: Yeah, I understand that and you’ve been clear about your positions, but this is just a conundrum that a person that thinks about Illinois and politics from time to time doesn’t quite understand, I guess.
McSweeney: Well, let me let me try to explain from my view. Jim Durkin just presided over losing seven seats, complete incompetence. Anybody else would be fired for that situation. And that just strengthens the power of the Democrats.
So until we turn that around, nothing’s going to change, meaning we change our leadership in Springfield and we focus on picking up seats. That’s the power. … But what we need to do is we need to pick up 60 seats, that’s the math. And in order to pick up 60 seats, we need to stand for something as a party and that’s what I’m focused on.
Stephens: Can the Illinois Republican Party stand for something as long as you know… I guess what the question I’m trying to ask, is the leadership currently, can it be reformed? Or does it have to be replaced in your opinion?
McSweeney: Well, it’s a joke. The only guy who makes any sense is Richard Porter, the Republican National Committeeman. [ILGOP Chairman] Schneider is a joke. Durkin and Brady are clowns who’ve been around forever.
McSweeney is retiring from the House to prepare a possible 2022 bid for US Senate.
* I asked the House GOP for a statement. Here’s Eleni Demertzis…
We wish Rep. McSweeney well on his upcoming retirement.
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Question of the day
Thursday, Feb 6, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From Gov. Pritzker’s State of the State address…
Rebuild Illinois is about more than just roads, bridges and universities; it’s about jobs: middle class careers with wages and benefits, the kind of jobs that help you raise a family. And together, we did more to make these jobs more inclusive and diverse, by investing in the Illinois Works program to recruit new construction apprentices and set strong goals for our public works projects to include diverse employees.
With me today is Reggie Marizetts Junior, a first-year apprentice with Laborers’ Local 165 in Peoria. Reggie fell in love with hands-on work early in his life, and it’s his apprenticeship where he is learning all the skills to succeed not just now, but for decades to come. Reggie intends to become a full-time journeyman and later to pursue his lifelong dream: opening a father-son construction company with his dad. Reggie, please stand so we can cheer for your hard work and your bright future.
Over the next six years, in addition to our expansion of apprenticeships, Rebuild Illinois will transform our infrastructure – even as we create a lot more opportunities for Reggie and thousands of young people just like him, with steady work that will help make sure that our economy works for everyone.
Pritzker toured the IUOE 659 Apprenticeship and Training Center today, where Reggie Marizetts is receiving training.
* From the governor’s remarks to reporters…
We have the most highly talented and dedicated workers in the entire nation. It’s why companies, people want to move to Illinois. We train people well here, and they do great work. And they’re dedicated to what they do. And so here we are in the epicenter of it, here in the center of the state of Illinois. This is where it all happens. This is what makes this state the greatest state in the United States.
His optimism can sometimes grate, but give him credit for consistency.
* The Question: What do you think makes Illinois better than other states?
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Porter’s latest idea is a doozy
Thursday, Feb 6, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Illinois Republican National Committeeman Richard Porter is always dreaming up new ideas. Here’s his latest via Brett Rowland at The Center Square…
His solution? A quick GM-style bankruptcy that would replace “Old Illinois” with “New Illinois,” with help from the federal government. […]
Porter argues that Illinois can’t afford to dig out through a series of small, incremental changes as its debts continue to grow and its population continues to decline and home values fall. Those things will only exacerbate the state’s financial problems and push more people to move out.
Illinois’ government, he said, has essentially stopped serving the people. Rather, lawmakers continue to search for more revenue to repay its creditors. And it’s not just the state. Porter pointed to Chicago’s debt and population losses. He also singled out municipalities such as Harvey and North Chicago that have had to cut services as they struggle to pay for promised pensions.
Porter proposed state lawmakers come up with a plan to create a New Illinois, with a new constitution, to buy the assets of Old Illinois. During this process, he said other changes would be needed for the state to be successful once it emerges from bankruptcy. He suggested consolidating the state’s more than 7,000 units of government – by far the most of any state in the nation – down to about 1,000.
“Rather than grinding through all these problems – who wants to do that? Do you want to spend 80 years grinding through 400 different, separate municipal bankruptcies?” he said.
Porter’s plan calls for the federal government to guarantee the debt that New Illinois would take on to buy the assets of Old Illinois. It’s another long shot, but not without precedent. He pointed to Brady bonds that were used in Mexico and other countries.
And the federal government would have some motivation to act because Illinois isn’t alone, Porter said.
“We’re not the only state – we’re sort of at the leading edge, but Connecticut’s right there and New Jersey’s right there,” he said.
Porter’s proposal calls for some federal help paying off the state’s accumulated pension debt. However, he said that pensioners wouldn’t get 100 cents on the dollar. Rather, he suggested some kind of cap or maximum – he tossed out $80,000 annually per pensioner as a limit.
In a state with a median household income of about $63,575, taxpayers can’t afford to pay huge pensions to former school superintendents who retired before they turned 60. Porter singled out former New Trier Superintendent Henry Bangser’s annual pension payout of more than $300,000. WTTW reported in 2017 that Bangser retired at age 57 and had already collected nearly $3 million in retirement benefits.
“Is the purpose of government to collect taxes to pay people who have the status of government workers so they can stop working in their 50s and live the rest of their lives in comfort? Is that the purpose of government?” he said “… If the average person is making $65,000, I’m not going to pay someone $90,000 or $100,000 or $120,000 or $350,000 a year not to work for 40 years. That’s called feudalism. That’s not a republican form of government.”
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Pritzker veto overridden for first time ever
Thursday, Feb 6, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* AP…
Illinois lawmakers have voted to override a veto by Gov. J.B. Pritzker that protects a tax exemption on aircraft parts.
A 54-1 Senate vote Wednesday followed a unanimous House vote a day earlier. The override forgives $50 million in past-due taxes from private jet manufacturers and extends them to 2024.
Lawmakers approved the tax break in 2010. It expired in 2014 but regulators took no notice and repair outfits did not collect the tax from jet owners.
* Capitol News Illinois…
The tax exemption applies to the sale of “materials, parts, equipment, components, and furnishings incorporated into or upon an aircraft as part of the modification, refurbishment, completion, replacement, repair, or maintenance of the aircraft.”
“This exemption was designed to create jobs and bring industry to the state of Illinois by putting Illinois on a level playing field with other tax-exempt states, and it worked,” Sen. Rachelle Crowe, a Glen Carbon Democrat, said on the Senate floor.
She noted there are 14 plants in 10 communities in Illinois that manufactured aircraft parts. Those factories employ an estimated 3,700 workers. […]
“The governor still believes giving private aircraft companies tens of millions of dollars in past due tax forgiveness is not the right fiscal decision for our state as we face billions in debt associated with unpaid bills, a multibillion-dollar structural deficit, and critical needs in schools and public safety services,” [Pritzker’s press secretary Jordan Abudayyeh] said. “He looks forward to working with the General Assembly to move forward and build on the progress that’s been made to put the state on firm fiscal footing and support and create good jobs throughout the state.”
* Center Square…
“In my district alone, over 500 jobs were created because of this exemption,” said state Sen. Rachelle Crowe, the Alton Democrat who sponsored the bill. “More than 500 families are supported in highly-skilled, well-paying jobs with a median income of over $82,000.”
Crowe said the exemption was an industry norm and doing away with it would not only be a shock to the companies that perform such work, but could also push those customers to other states. […]
The governor has vetoed eight bills. House Bill 3902 is the only bill lawmakers have voted to override.
The sales tax exemption will last until Dec. 31, 2024.
* Finke…
“The point of this legislation is simple: to keep good-paying jobs in our area,” said state Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria. “Without this tax exemption there is no question that aviation companies would have to take a long look at doing business elsewhere.”
Byerly Aviation operates out of space at the Gen. Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport and offers aircraft maintenance, charters and aircraft sales.
“This is not about the very privileged people that happen to own private aircraft,” said Sen. Scott Bennett, D-Champaign. “This is about the hardworking men and women who have special skills and have created markets for new jobs across Illinois.”
* Alton Telegraph…
West Star Aviation in East Alton is one such firm, providing maintenance and repair services for private aircraft. West Star Aviation CEO Jim Rankin had said the legislation “greatly helps our more than 500 employees” and would allow the firm to remain in Illinois. […]
Ronda Sauget, executive director and CEO of the Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois which had lobbied heavily for the bill, said Tuesday’s vote was very good news.
“The House had such a positive vote on the aviation legislation,” she said. In addition to West Star Aviation, Sauget said the bill will affect a number of companies at St. Louis Downtown Airport in Cahokia including Gulfstream, which has a large workforce there. In all, about 1,200 to 1,500 jobs will be affected, she said.
“There are extremely high-paying, manufacturing kinds of jobs,” she said. “We want to maintain this manufacturing sector.”
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* Wikipedia…
The Pan-African flag—also known as the UNIA flag, Afro-American flag, Black Liberation flag, and various other names—is a tri-color flag consisting of three equal horizontal bands of (from top down) red, black and green. The Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) formally adopted it on August 13, 1920 in Article 39 of the Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World, during its month-long convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Variations of the flag can and have been used in various countries and territories in the Americas to represent Garveyist ideologies.
* Twitter…
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* Press release…
The Southern Illinois University Board of Trustees is expected to act on a recommendation to freeze student tuition and fees at its February 13 meeting. According to Board Chairman Phil Gilbert, he and Vice Chairman Ed Hightower have been in discussion with SIU Edwardsville Chancellor Randy Pembrook, SIU Carbondale Chancellor John M. Dunn and incoming SIU System President Dan Mahony regarding the importance of holding down costs of tuition and fees for students who are considering an institution in the SIU System for 2020.
“Governor Pritzker’s priority for funding higher education is making this decision easier. The SIU System is committed to affordable tuition and fees for Illinois students. The recommendation to the full SIU Board of Trustees will include a tuition freeze for all undergraduate and graduate programs, including those in the system’s four professional schools of dental, law, medicine and pharmacy,” said Chairman Gilbert.
“We appreciate and support Governor Pritzker’s priority of reversing the downward trend in higher education enrollment and stabilizing the trend of Illinois students leaving the state for other education opportunities,” said Vice Chairman Ed Hightower.
Mahony, whose appointment as system president begins March 1, said both institutions are focused on recruitment and affordability. “I am pleased to see so many positive steps occurring on both the Carbondale and Edwardsville campuses toward enrollment and making college affordable for our students and their families,” he said.
At the board’s December meeting, both campuses reported a potential for more students this fall. SIU Carbondale is reporting applications for first-time freshmen are up more than 27 percent over last year and the number of admitted students is up 21 percent. SIU Edwardsville freshmen applications are up 21 percent and admittance is up 20 percent.
* Southern Illinoisan…
In the last two decades, in-state tuition and fees have increased about 150% at SIUC, a rise reflected around the country as government divestment from higher education places greater financial burden on students.
SIUC raised tuition 3.9% in 2017, another 2% in 2018, then held steady in 2019.
Tuition and fees for an underclassman were $14,904 this year, plus about $10,000 more for room and board for students choosing to live on campus.
However, about 87% of incoming students received financial aid cutting into that sticker price.
SIUC aid packages met an average of 61 percent of students’ demonstrated financial need and averaged over $15,000, during the 2017-2018 school year, significantly outpacing other regional competitors, university data shows.
You can compare SIU tuition and fees to other public universities in Illinois by clicking here.
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* From a Tribune editorial about Gov. Pritzker’s idea to make Illinois the first in the nation primary…
That would mean shoving Illinois to the front of the line in early February and intensifying the campaign frenzy here, which registers just a hair above dull. Illinois’ primary election is unfashionably late — this year it’s March 17 — and the state’s population losses have translated into dwindling influence nationally. A U.S. House delegation that once had 27 members will, after this year’s census, surely fall to 17.
We had 27 seats in… 1943. The country as a whole has changed a lot since then. California had 23 seats in 1943 and now it has 53.
Iowa, by the way, had 9 seats in 1943. It now has 4.
But, you know, any excuse to talk about the ILLINOIS EXODUS is a good excuse to those fine folks.
* More…
Presidential candidates are not mingling with voters at rural elementary schools or Naperville pancake houses because Illinois isn’t considered a competitive hotbed, not in primary season and not for Electoral College votes in the general election.
Please scroll up to the very top of this page. /s
* The editorial board then argues that a solidly Democratic state like Illinois wouldn’t make a good first choice. Um…
The downside of Illinois corruption, the recent voter registration “glitches” and etc. are also discussed. Those are all valid points, but it almost seems like they copied sections from other editorials and plopped them into this one without stopping to think if it actually made sense.
* And then they focus on the “diversity” argument…
Democrats could have coalesced around Sen. Kamala Harris, who’s of Jamaican and Indian descent. They could have elevated Cory Booker, New Jersey’s first African American senator. They could have boosted Julian Castro of Texas, once the youngest member of Obama’s Cabinet, who is of Mexican descent. They could have rallied around Hawaii’s Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu member of Congress. They could have activated the grassroots for Andrew Yang, whose parents emigrated from Taiwan.
Long before Monday, the candidates who contributed the most diversity to the Democratic field either quit the race or fell behind. Why? Because they didn’t attract the support of rank and file Democrats.
What?
Iowa Democrats turned thumbs down on candidates of color before the candidates could get to more diverse states. And that’s the precise argument Pritzker is making.
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It’s just a bill
Thursday, Feb 6, 2020 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Press release…
State Representative Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) has filed legislation aimed at keeping Illinois students in state for college. The bill, HB4088, would create the Rewarding Excellence with Higher Education Guaranteed Admissions Act and grant admission to any state university for any student that scores in the top 10% on either the ACT or SAT.
Representative Batinick filed this legislation after hearing about too many students in his own community who received high test scores, yet were denied admission to Illinois’ own universities. “We have great schools here, and we should be creating better opportunities for our best students so they can stay in Illinois,” Rep. Batinick said. “The future lies in our younger population. If we are going to help turn our state around, we need to take a closer look at our admissions to our state schools.”
According to the Board of Higher Education, 48.4% of Illinois graduates who enroll in four-year institution go to school out of state—a number that has nearly doubled since 2002.
“Too many of our brightest students are leaving for better opportunities in other states,” Batinick continued. “When students leave Illinois, a large percentage of them do not return. Our most precious resource is our educated youth and we must reverse this trend.”
HB4088 is currently in the Rules Committee in the House of Representatives awaiting further consideration.
* Press release…
Serious animal abusers who kill a pet could soon face more serious charges and punishment, due to legislation filed by State Senator Steve McClure (R-Springfield).
“Illinois law treats a criminal who abuses and kills someone’s pet the same as someone who commits a second retail theft,” said McClure. “If someone walks into a public bar and slaps another person without their permission, it is the same level of crime as when someone takes another’s pet, violently tortures it for hours, and then kills it,” said McClure.
Under current law, aggravated abuse of a companion animal or pet is a Class 4 felony. Senator McClure’s legislation, SB2995, would make the offense a more serious Class 2 felony if the abuse leads to the death of the pet. A second or subsequent offense would be an even more serious Class 1 felony. The legislation would not include cases of self-defense or instances where a pet is euthanized.
“When I was an assistant state’s attorney, I prosecuted several terrible animal abuse cases. Many serial killers start off by torturing and then killing defenseless pets,” said Senator McClure. “We need to take the abuse and killing of pets seriously to not only protect them, but also to protect the public from people who may commit more horrific offenses on people in the future.”
Senator McClure noted the large number of recent cases of animal cruelty, abuse, and neglect as signs that more action needs to be taken. “This legislation should put animal abusers on notice. If you murder a pet, you will be punished,” said Senator McClure. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass this bipartisan legislation into law.”
* Press release…
Several Democratic members of the newly formed Senate Special Committee on Public Safety met in Chicago today to unveil their public safety priorities for this year’s legislative session.
State Senator Robert Peters (D-Chicago), who will chair the committee, spoke of his past legislative accomplishments and how they motivate him to continue that fight.
“I’ve dedicated my adult life toward the fight to reimagine and to win real safety and justice, and last year I passed several laws with this goal in mind, including one to abolish private detention centers,” Peters said. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to personally head up the Special Committee on Public Safety, and I am confident that the committee will lead to a society that is fair, equitable, just and, most importantly, safe.”
State Senator Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago), who was appointed to the Senate earlier this month, also spoke at the press conference and talked of the disproportionate targeting of communities of color and the school-to-prison pipeline.
“Right now we have a criminal justice system that lacks justice,” Villanueva said. “In our current system, working class people of color are subject to harsher sentencing, higher bail and increased surveillance by law enforcement. With these oppressive structures in place, true justice cannot exist. We must fundamentally change the way Illinois deals with criminal justice issues and ensure that these systemic inequities are corrected.”
Also present was State Senator Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago), who discussed inequity based on income and class discrepancies and the prevalence of recidivism for former inmates.
“Too much of our system is focused on knocking people down rather than building them up,” Villivalam said. “Our current criminal justice isn’t equitable; it punishes people for being poor.”
State Senator Laura Fine (D-Glenview) focused on the need to treat inmates with dignity in order to guarantee safety and justice.
“The problems in our criminal justice system harm not only those who are incarcerated, but also their families and communities,” Fine said. “The first step toward fixing those problems is changing the way we work with incarcerated individuals—we must focus on reforms that protect fundamental human rights and dignity both during and after their time in prison so they can lead successful personal and family lives after incarceration.”
The Senate Special Committee on Public Safety will be tasked with hearing a number of measures, including one to put a stop to cash bail.
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* Belleville News-Democrat…
Citizens of two shrinking metro-east municipalities will be asked on the March 17 primary ballot if they should be merged.
The boards of both the city of Centreville and village of Alorton each approved a referendum that, if approved, would join the municipalities in an aldermanic style of government. The city, according to the referendum, would be called Alcentra.
* Madison - St. Clair Record editorial…
The proposed merger raises the obvious question of why residents of Alorton and Centreville would want to give up the independent status of their communities, a question the two mayors promise to address at a town hall meeting at the Charlie Coleman Center in Alorton next Tuesday evening.
In a letter to their residents, Alorton Mayor Jo Ann Reed and Centreville Mayor Marius Jackson endorsed the proposal, saying the merger would lead to better roads and sewers, better housing, better jobs, better government, and lower taxes.
No intelligent resident of either town would believe such obvious lies, and it’s despicable that leaders who ask for your trust betray it with such utter nonsense. Both Alorton and Centreville have been hemorrhaging citizens for years, Alorton’s population declining 20 percent over the last decade (currently less than 2,000) and Centreville’s by 12 percent (now roughly 5,000).
Merging the two towns might mean one less mayor to pay for and the consolidation of duplicate city services, but it’s highly unlikely that the annual budget for Alcentra is going to be less than the current budgets of Alorton and Centreville combined. Nor is it likely that the improvements promised are going to be delivered by a hybrid of two towns that don’t currently keep their promises.
The problem for Alorton and Centreville is not their size. It’s their maladministration. Incompetent and corrupt leadership and an entrenched Democrat Party machine are what are destroying both communities, and many others throughout Illinois.
We the voters have to reclaim our hometowns, and our state.
Um, OK?
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* From the prepared remarks delivered at today’s Joint Commission on Ethics and Lobbying Reform hearing in Springfield. Emphasis added by me…
My name is Julie Porter. I am an attorney at Salvatore Prescott Porter & Porter. From November 2017 through February 28, 2019, I served as the Acting Legislative Inspector General for Illinois. I entered the office with optimism, intending to serve the public by conducting independent, thorough investigations into alleged wrongdoing by state legislators, and—should I conclude that wrongdoing occurred— by reporting my findings to the public. That is not what happened, though. Although I completed dozens of investigations without incident, in some significant matters, when I did find wrongdoing and sought to publish it, state legislators charged with serving on the Legislative Ethics Commission blocked me.
Specifically, the Legislative Ethics Commission refused to publish one of my founded summary reports. There was also a second founded summary report that I requested to be published before my term ended. My successor chose not to press publication with the Legislative Ethics Commission; it was obvious, I suspect, that the Legislative Ethics Commission would bury it, just like it buried my other report on a similar topic. I wrote about these events in an Op-Ed that was published in the Chicago Tribune in April 2019, after leaving my role as Acting Legislative Inspector General.
Since then, there has been an additional shocking development. Both the Legislative Inspector General and the Legislative Ethics Commission are required to publish quarterly reports, identifying certain statistics regarding new and pending matters. The reports are mostly just numbers, but a careful observer will note that my final report to the Illinois General Assembly, dated February 28, 2019, disclosed that since the date of my previous report, one action had been filed with the Legislative Ethics Commission and was pending before the Legislative Ethics Commission. That was unusual. It was the first time in my tenure that I had requested, pursuant to the Illinois State Officials and Employees Ethics Act, 5 ILCS 430/25-50, that the Attorney General file a formal complaint before the Legislative Ethics Commission (the only type of matter that could be “pending” before the Legislative Ethics Commission).
What happened to that matter? I cannot tell you, both because I left office while it was still pending, and because of my confidentiality obligations under 5 ILCS 430/25-90. What I can point out to you, though, based on public reports, is that although that matter remained pending throughout the second and third quarters of 2019, the Legislative Inspector General’s third quarter 2019 report, dated October 15, 2019, indicated that the matter was no longer pending before the Legislative Ethics Commission. The Legislative Ethics Commission’s report for the same period, also dated October 15, 2019, states that the Commission “did not agree to publish” another founded summary report, which I can only conclude—based on this public information—was the formal complaint that I had caused the Attorney General to bring before the Commission.
Because I am bound to confidentiality, I cannot share with you what this investigation was or detail for you the many hours spent to get to the bottom of what I concluded was serious wrongdoing, warranting a founded summary report and even a formal complaint brought by the Attorney General. But my report and the Attorney General’s complaint should not be secret. They remain so only because the Legislative Ethics Commission squashed them so that the public could not see what the supposedly independent Inspector General determined to be wrongdoing by a sitting legislator.
The Illinois State Officials and Employees Ethics Act, 5 ILCS 430/1, is the statute that governs both the Legislative Inspector General and the Legislative Ethics Commission. The statute has fundamental flaws that undermine any true effort to have an independent watchdog with real authority to investigate and expose misconduct.
Although there are many places that the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act could and should be tweaked, I wish to highlight one key deficiency: the Legislative Inspector General cannot be independent, and having a Legislative Inspector General is a waste of resources, if a Legislative Ethics Commission staffed by legislators—all appointed by the House and Senate leaders—presides over her investigations and has the power to kill them. That is precisely the system we have now in Illinois: the fox is guarding the henhouse. And the problems are not just hypothetical; over the past year, the Legislative Ethics Commission has used its authority under this statute to undermine the Legislative Inspector General’s work in critical ways.
To address this core defect, I recommend at least the following changes to the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act:
(1) If there is going to be a Legislative Ethics Commission, it should not be staffed by legislators appointed by the House and Senate leaders. 5 ILCS 430/25-5 should be amended to require a more diverse body, including or exclusively non-legislators, that is not beholden to legislative leadership.
(2) Section 5 ILCS 430/25-50(f) should be deleted. The Legislative Ethics Commission should not have the power unilaterally to rule on the “sufficiency” of a complaint advanced by the Legislative Inspective General, reviewed by the Attorney General, and filed by the Attorney General. The term “sufficiency” is not defined, and the statute identifies no factors relevant to judging sufficiency. As written, the Legislative Ethics Commission could find a complaint insufficient simply because they regard it as politically embarrassing. There is also no process for the Attorney General or the Legislative Inspector General to appeal an arbitrary or unsound judgment by the Legislative Ethics Commission, making this provision all the more problematic.
(3) Section 5 ILCS 430/25-52 should be amended so that the power to publish a founded summary report lies solely with the Legislative Inspector General—not with the Legislative Ethics Commission. The Legislative Ethics Commission has shown that it cannot be trusted to publish founded summary reports. Because the Commission’s deliberations are confidential, and I am bound by that confidentiality, I cannot reveal the reasons for my deep concerns about the way the Commission is wielding this power. All I can say is that allowing the Commission the power to hide a Legislative Inspector General’s findings of misconduct from public view, when the Legislative Inspector General is urging that such findings be public, renders the Legislative Inspector General position almost entirely pointless.
I am not aware of any other Inspector General in Illinois who is required to jump through the hoops and be subject to the control that Illinois legislators have bestowed upon the Legislative Ethics Commission. All one needs to do is pick up a newspaper to see how important it is to have a truly independent and empowered Legislative Inspector General in Illinois. I call upon this Joint Commission to take this issue seriously and begin the process of bringing true independence to the LIG role.
Thank you for considering my perspective on this matter.
Tina Sfondeles has more background here.
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* Shruti Singh at Bloomberg…
The forces that are driving the municipal-bond market rally are especially strong in Illinois.
Over the next 30 days, agencies in the state will pay off about $1.3 billion of debt, more than eight times as much as is currently scheduled to be sold, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While that gap may narrow as more bond offerings are announced, nowhere except Texas currently faces as large a mismatch between supply and demand. That’s a positive sign for Illinois debt, which this year has already outperformed every other U.S. state tracked by Bloomberg as rock-bottom interest rates cause investors to snap up higher-yielding bonds. […]
The broader rally has cut municipal-debt yields to the lowest in more than six decades, fueling interest in bonds with higher payouts. That has helped fuel the outperformance for Illinois, whose rating three years ago was at risk of being cut to junk because of the government’s large debt to employee pension funds and the gridlock the former Republican governor encountered in the Democrat-controlled legislature.
The end to the political divide since Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker took office last year has also contributed to the state’s outsize gains. The difference between the yields on Illinois’s 10-year bonds and those with the highest credit ratings — a key measure of the perceived risk — has narrowed to a little over one percentage point, the smallest since at least 2013 and down from more than three percentage points in 2017 at the height of a long-running impasse over the budget, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The yield-penalty on Illinois bonds is still the highest of the 20 states tracked by Bloomberg.
Market conditions are driving most of this, but the state wouldn’t be able to take full advantage of those market conditions if we still had a Tribune-endorsed government stalemate.
* Accompanying graph…
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* Robert Feder…
Greg Kot, the nationally renowned authority on popular music for the Chicago Tribune, is leaving the newspaper after 40 years — including the last 30 as music critic.
Kot, 62, is the highest-profile personality so far to announce his departure from the Tribune under a voluntary buyout plan offered to employees of Tribune Publishing newspapers. His last day will be Friday.
“It’s bittersweet,” Kot told me Wednesday. “I received a lot of latitude from the Trib to define my job and cover the music beat the way I wanted to, and I considered it a privilege. It was an honor. And I wanted to do that job 100 percent to the best of my ability at all times. […]
Along with former Sun-Times rock critic Jim DeRogatis, Kot also will continue to co-host “Sound Opinions,” the nationally syndicated rock ‘n’ roll talk show produced by Chicago Public Media WBEZ 91.5-FM. “Sound Opinions” airs at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
* Anders Lindall is the AFSCME Council 31 spokesperson, but he was also a music writer for the Sun-Times…
Greg Kot’s departure says a lot about the state of the Tribune, the newspaper business, our economy. But in the days since I heard he was leaving, I’ve been thinking a lot about all his writing has meant, personally, to me.
As a high school student and a nutty music fan, there were a handful of people who made me want to be a writer. There was Lester Bangs and Hunter Thompson, but they were both wild, crazy, and in Lester’s case, dead. Around that time, though, I remember reading a piece about a live performance by Bob Mould and Sugar that was so vivid, so evocative, you could tell exactly how the music sounded, and more importantly, how that sound made you FEEL. That piece was by Greg Kot. He was working, writing, right then, for the Chicago Tribune. I realized this was a thing you could actually DO.
It wasn’t long after that I sent a letter to the editor of the City Pages, the Minneapolis underground weekly, taking issue with an album review. They gave me an internship.
Within a few years I wound up here in Chicago, and was lucky enough to be taken in as a research assistant by Jim DeRogatis. Soon I was contributing to the Sun-Times, even covering the same shows as Kot. I was a kid, fortunate to be his aspiring peer. He was, and has ever remained, unfailingly friendly, generous and kind. While Jim became a priceless mentor and dear friend, of the twosome, it was always Greg whose critical voice and measured manner more closely matched my own. I absolutely tried to do myself what he’d done in that Sugar piece–make the reader understand how the music sounded, and how that sound made you feel.
I’ve read Greg’s writing on music, in the Trib and his deeply researched books, religiously for 25 years. I’m gonna miss those columns and live reviews. I’m gonna miss running into him on the street after a show, or in the heat of the ballfield at the Pitchfork Festival. I hope it means we all get a lot more radio shows and books.
Thanks, Mr. Kot, for everything. Here’s to your next chapter.
* Back to Robert Feder…
In addition to the departure of music critic Greg Kot reported here Wednesday, the list of Chicago Tribune employees leaving under the company’s voluntary buyout offer includes: editorial writer Andrea Hanis, criminal justice editor Matt O’Connor, higher education reporter Dawn Rhodes, and Design and Production Studio directors Liz Fitzgerald and Jordan Dziura. Previously reported were buyouts for sports editor Tim Bannon and senior arts and entertainment editor Carmél Carrillo. “I grew up living for the arrival of the nice thick Sunday Tribune every week, and it was a thrill to work here. It’s a room where it feels like everyone is either a legend or a legend-in-the-making, whether the public knows their names or not,” said Hanis, whose last day is Friday.
Dawn Rhodes is the goods. Sorry to see her leave. She said goodbye on Twitter…
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* Greg Bishop…
Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White said Wednesday he put his employees on notice over problems with the state’s automatic voter registration program after it was revealed that more than 570 people who said they weren’t U.S. citizens were improperly registered to vote.
One of those 570 people actually voted, officials said at a hearing Wednesday in Springfield.
In his first public comments on the issue Wednesday at the state capitol, White apologized and said his office had corrected the issue.
“I’m angry at what happened,” he said. “I’ve put my staff on notice. Zero tolerance will be the order of the day with the Secretary of State’s office going forward.”
* Neal Earley…
Election officials confirmed during the hearing that one non-citizen voted in Downstate Champaign County in the 2018 general election. But they believe nine of the 16 self-identified non-citizens found to have cast ballots are actually U.S. citizens because they appear to have been legitimately registered to vote before the snafu, said Matt Dietrich, a spokesman for the state electoral board.
“That means they already had signed a legal document attesting to their citizenship when they registered previously, which is the legal requirement for voting,” Dietrich told the Sun-Times later in an email. “That attestation stands despite their checking of the noncitizen box.”
The citizenship status of the other six who went on to vote despite checking the non-citizen box was still in doubt, Dietrich said.
White, who sat quietly as officials from his office answered most of the questions from the lawmakers, apologized, saying “the entire staff has been put on notice.”
* Dan Petrella…
Working with the State Board of Elections, Secretary of State Jesse White’s office determined that the individual who voted in Champaign County used an immigration document as a form of identification when applying for a driver’s license, office spokesman Henry Haupt said.
There were no elections decided by a single vote in Champaign County in the last general election, and that voter’s registration has been canceled, officials said.
Election officials have not yet been able to account for six other voters, including two in Chicago, three in suburban Cook County and one in DuPage County.
They can’t just contact them in person? They have their home addresses, after all.
* Hannah Meisel…
In a letter last week addressed to White and Sandvoss, members of the Just Democracy Coalition said it was close to filing suit if violations of the automatic voter registration law were not fixed. White has until Feb. 17 to respond.
The coalition said it has repeatedly offered help to White’s office, but has been rebuffed and ignored. White on Wednesday said he had not heard from them.
“Tell them to give me a call,” White said. “Just tell them to call me personally.”
Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights spokesperson Timna Axel told The Daily Line her organization was frustrated by both White’s office and the potential “chilling effect” the debacle could have on civic participation from those who have in the past had less access to the ballot box.
“Is there a phone number we can call to get us to a table with the Secretary of State to solve these incredible issues?” Axel asked. “If so, we would love to have it…this isn’t the first time we’ve raised any of these issues. We’ve had to send multiple legal notices. All we’re seeing is a car accident pile-up.”
The letter is here.
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* Bloomberg…
Illinois per-capita recreational pot sales topped every state but one in its debut month, according to an analysis this week.
The state logged $39.2 million of adult-use recreational marijuana sales in January, or $3.07 in sales per resident, according to New Frontier Data, a cannabis research company. Those are the second-highest sales per capita during the first full month of legalization among eight other states where adults can buy pot for recreational use. Nevada was the highest at $8.88 per capita in July 2017, a figure bolstered by tourism, according to Kacey Morrissey, New Frontier’s director of industry analytics.
Illinois’s performance is “typical for first month’s sales,” Beau Whitney, executive vice president and senior economist at New Frontier, said in an email. “Illinois is fairly strong out of the gate.” […]
About a quarter of the state’s take will go toward community reinvestment partly to reverse some of the challenges from past drug policy, according to Hutchinson. Collections may also help chip away at Illinois’s $6.2 billion of unpaid bills and $137 billion of pension debt. Tax collections on legal pot are forecast to jump from $34 million in 2020 to $375.5 million in 2024, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.
* Kankakee Daily Journal…
While legal cannabis is off to a good start in some ways, it’s too early to declare success for a couple reasons.
First, the state needs to disperse the money so it will go where it can do the most good. That sounds easy enough, but do you remember when Illinois rolled out the lottery in 1974? It was supposed to produce a bonanza in school funding. Nearly 50 years later, funding public schools remains an area where the state misses the mark.
And newspapers wonder why they’re losing relevance.
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Ending A Dark Chapter
Thursday, Feb 6, 2020 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
After years of lies, corruption, and abuses of power, all but one of Trump’s Republican enablers voted to acquit him of all charges after a sham impeachment trial. Now Donald Trump will stop at nothing to keep our country divided.
To turn the page, we need a leader with a proven record of working across the aisle and who will begin working on day one to reunite this country and restore accountability to the White House.
We need a leader who won’t refuse to shake the hand of the 3rd highest ranking official - and highest ranking woman - in the United States.
Most of all we need a nominee who can build the strongest and broadest possible coalition and truly take the fight to Trump now, and through November. That leader is Mike Bloomberg.
Read Mike’s reaction to the impeachment trial here.
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* The power of Mike Madigan, rising local property taxes, state gas tax increase, graduated income tax. You’d think this person was running for the Illinois House and not the US House…
Then again, all that probably polls pretty darned well with his target audience.
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