* The new owners of Boone’s Saloon appear to be looking at the long term because they’re certainly not concerned about the short term. They’ve been working on that place for weeks. Word was the former Statehouse hangout would open by May 1, but that date has long since passed. Warm session nights in that beer garden have truly been missed by many of us.
And I just received a Facebook notice that the steakhouse in Vinegar Hill is reopening - on May 20th. That’s just 11 days before the scheduled end of session.
I wish nothing but the best for the owners of both establishments. But, hurry up already, guys.
* It used to be that you could find just about every session type at just a few places in Springfield. Nowadays, though, everybody has spread out. That makes my job a bit tougher because I do a lot of, um, “work” in the evenings. Actually, there’s no “um” about it. What I do in the evenings may not look like work, and some of it ain’t, but much of it is.
Where have you been hanging this session?
…Adding… In case you haven’t yet heard, the House just canceled Sunday’s session. The Senate is still scheduled to be in Sunday, but there’s a Democratic caucus this afternoon so we may know more when it’s over.
Thursday, May 12, 2011 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
…..but a wolf in sheep’s clothing is still a wolf.
ComEd and other Illinois utility companies have revamped their automatic rate hikes bill – House Bill 14 (Amendment #3). They claim the bill is now more “consumer friendly.” The reality: the revamped version of House Bill 14 is now a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
In spite of changes in the way in which rate cases would be brought before the Illinois Commerce Commission, the most troubling aspects of the bill are still in place: locking in rate hikes for Illinois consumers for a number of years; and bolstering utility company profit margins. The consumer is still on the losing end of House Bill 14
The simple fact that utility companies have revamped the bill shows that it was the wrong bill to begin with. The changes are no more than cosmetic, aimed at deflecting some of the public pressure brought on utility companies by a number of elected leaders, including Governor Pat Quinn and Attorney General Lisa Madigan, as well as consumer advocacy organizations.
House Bill 14 is still the wrong bill at the worst possible time. AARP urges lawmakers to oppose House Bill 14.
“I think you need to make the parents responsible. You’re looking at every other avenue. It’s the parents’ responsibility that have obese kids. I think you need to look at a bill to take the tax deduction away for their child if he’s obese. And in poorer families, they actually get money for their kids. I’d take that money away.”
Sen. Cultra later said it was a “tongue-in-cheek comment taken out of context - and should not be taken seriously.” To me, the video doesn’t appear to show any intended irony on Cultra’s part…
The tenor of the debate was that Republicans were mocking the [soda pop] tax and saying it would do nothing to solve childhood obesity. In light of this, it is easy to understand that Cultra was merely being sarcastic with his tax exemption removal proposal.
To back up the idea that Cultra was not seriously proposing this idea we can also note that he’s introduced no legislation to remove the tax exemptions nor begun any process to do so.
This misreported story is a perfect example of how bad our Old Media establishment really is. They look for sensation, not truth. Cultra’s joke was turned into “news” by reporters that didn’t bother to discover the real context of the remarks. Makes one wonder how often this happens, doesn’t it?
Drudge and Bill O’Reilly linked to it, Rush commented on it and Cultra’s been quoted all over the place. The New York Times’ Economix blog took it seriously, as did the, um, Big Fat Blog. And I can’t quite figure out what Kass’ column meant.
For true “tongue-in-cheek,” though, it was tough to beat Gawker…
* There’s been a lot of talk amongst the chattering classes about Rahm Emanuel’s future, even though he hasn’t even been sworn in yet. Some have suggested that he might even run for governor, which I find highly unlikely. A Chicago mayor running statewide? More than tough. Emanuel might possibly have tipped his hand in a recent magazine interview…
In an upcoming GQ interview, Emanuel omits Quinn’s job from his list of the top five chief exec jobs in the country.
† Rahm’s pick: “The president, the governor of California, the governor of New York, the mayor of New York and the mayor of Chicago. I hope I am not insulting anybody else, and if I am insulting a governor somewhere, I apologize.”
He’s probably right about that list.
* For months now, the chatterers have speculated about how Emanuel would deal with Ald. Ed Burke. Burke was just too powerful to roll, they mostly said. Maybe not…
In letting word out that Chicago Ald. Edward Burke (14th) gets to keep the chairmanship of a somewhat diminished Finance Committee in the new City Council, there’s a suggestion of civility in both Burke and Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel that papers over what actually happened. […]
But the pow-wow at 40th ward Ald. Patrick O’Connor’s house aside, this is a lot less about two titans choosing to put their swords down than about the aftermath of a battle that’s already been won – and lost.
And have no doubt about it, Burke lost. And it was epic. That he gets to stay on as chair of the Finance Committee is not a sign of enduring power. What Emanuel is doing is letting him keep the crown while looting his kingdom.
We already know that there will be a new committee, the Workforce Development and Audit Committee, headed by O’Connor, the new mayor’s floor leader. The new committee will take over the most important thing the Finance Committee did under Burke: It will shepherd every single piece of proposed legislation to the City Council.
So it will now be Emanuel’s man, O’Connor, not Burke, who will have the power to move or kill legislation without even taking a council vote. (Yes, it has been an awesome power.)
* Meanwhile, Emanuelchose Matt Hynes as his Intergovernmental Affairs director. Some speculated when Emanuel brought Hynes into the campaign that it was simply a political move to ingratiate himself with the Hynes family. But Hynes was far more than that. And now he’s the top city lobbyist. He also has what appears to be his first win…
In the House, a sweeping education reform package moved a step closer to the desk of Gov. Pat Quinn, who has promised to sign it. The proposal would make it easier to dump bad teachers, prevent strikes and lengthen school days — a wish of Chicago mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel. The measure, which has passed the Senate, moves to the House floor.
The House did not amend the bill to make it more hostile to the teachers unions, as Speaker Madigan has been threatening to do for weeks. Getting the governor a “clean” bill is a win for Emanuel’s team. More on that topic…
The bill makes major changes to teacher tenure and how teachers are hired, fired and reassigned.
The hang-ups involve provisions affecting Chicago Public Schools, not downstate districts. The bill makes it harder for Chicago teachers to strike by requiring 75 percent of members to agree to a strike before it can be called. The CTU wants to make sure that only members of the union count when it comes to tallying such votes, not CPS personnel who fall under the CTU collective bargaining agreement and are assessed dues by the union but are not union members.
The CTU, which is a subsidiary of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, also wants to ensure that the bill’s provisions do not interfere with a case the union has before the Educational Labor Relations Board having to do with layoffs in the district.
“Since passage (in the Senate), a few cracks have developed,” said House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, one of the bill’s sponsors. “There are a couple of issues upon which now there is a dispute as to whether the language actually reflects the agreements that were made. How to make those changes is still the subject of continuing debate.”
The changes will be made in a trailer bill. Team Emanuel also managed to hold up a school closure bill until they could negotiate changes…
A bill that stalled in the House, which would force Chicago Public Schools to plan ahead for school closures and capital expenditures, remains a work in progress, according to the bill’s sponsor. […]
Soto described the bill as an accountability measure created with the cooperation of Chicago Public Schools that would simply force them to establish and then follow their own policies on school closures. With Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel being sworn in Monday, his education team wanted to take an extra look at the language, Soto said.
“Senate Bill 620 is being negotiated with (Emanuel’s) education team,” she said. “With the new administration, new education team, we’re going to be courteous and let them review the bill.”
* Yesterday’s hearing of the House Human Services Appropriations Committee was far from a pleasant event as members overwhelmingly approved several spending cuts…
A lengthy list of witnesses registered with the committee Wednesday, all of them opposed to the proposal.
“We were given the absolutely breathtaking, stunning task to reduce the budget by $1.2 billion,” committee chairman Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, said. “It was a hideous task.”
The Republican spokesperson on the committee, Rep. Rosemary Mulligan, R-Park Ridge, was the only “no” vote on the appropriations, saying that she appreciated the work of the committee in rewriting the budget but that “I don’t agree with it.”
The human service agencies took major cuts, with most travel and telecommunications line items reduced by 50 percent, and most personnel lines frozen at this year’s levels. Contractual services were for the most part cut as well. Perhaps the biggest reduction was an 18.4 percent cut in funding for state-operated developmental centers and mental health facilities. Lawmakers said they wanted to make greater use of community-based facilities. In fact, grant payments to some local programs for the developmentally disabled increase under the House budget. […]
Overall, the House committee plan — which could be voted on by the full House as soon as today or Friday — contains more than a billion dollars in cuts for the Department of Healthcare and Family Services and about $650 million for the Department of Human Services.
State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, said she heard plenty of people say they wanted more from the state. In response, she restored 27 different pieces of the human services budget that Quinn zeroed out in the final draft she helped craft.
“He chose to take pharmaceuticals away from senior citizens; we put it back. He chose to take relief away through the Circuit Breaker (program); we put it back,” Feigenholtz said. “We want services and dollars and assistance to get to the people who have earned it, paid for it and worked for it their whole lives.”
Specifically lawmakers added $1.98 million for funeral and burial services for low-income families; the governor had scratched that program from his budget. Quinn also zeroed out money for the Children’s Place, a museum, and crisis nurseries that provide emergency shelter for women with babies and young children, across the state. Lawmakers added $487,500 and 100,000 respectively.
The numbers are included in budgets from the Illinois House. State senators have their own plan, both of which have yet to be voted on.
Feigenholtz said compromise is likely, but she expects a final spending plan to be close to her numbers. She said too many people worked too hard to produce what she hopes will be a “fair” budget.
The budget would extend the payment cycle for Medicaid bills from 24 to 45 days, a $500 million saving.
* Meanwhile, over in higher education, some MAP grants were cut to preserve other funding…
This draft for next year’s budget seeks to prevent the state’s Monetary Award Program, or MAP, from awarding grants to students attending for-profit schools.
For-profit schools operate as a business and receive public funds, according to Education.com. Among the for-profit schools is The School of the Art Institute and DeVry University in Chicago. The House’s proposed higher education budget, which aims to reach its $2.1 billion spending goal, also seeks to cut 1 percent in funding to universities. State Rep. Kenneth Dunkin, D-Chicago, who heads the budget committee on higher education, has said his committee found it easier to make cuts to for-profit schools, rather than deeper cuts to nonprofit schools.
Funding for community colleges, however, will not be cut and may, in fact, receive a financial bump from this proposal.
“The state of Illinois is broke,” said State Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Charleston. “I think the taxpayers would think it’s outrageous that their taxpayer money is going … basically into the pockets of private, for-profit owners of some of these colleges.”
* And in K-12, some cuts the governor proposed were restored…
Quinn made headlines and raised eyebrows in February when he suggested that the state stop paying for regional school superintendents, which totaled $12.6 million this year. The governor zeroed out that portion of the budget for next year, but lawmakers returned $11.3 million in their draft.
State Rep. Will Davis, D-Homewood, who helped craft the education budget, said lawmakers feared that doing away with regional superintendents would cost the state more than the governor’s cut would save. […]
Lawmakers also returned millions of dollars that Quinn wanted trimmed from schools’ transportation budgets. The governor wanted to spend $175 million on school buses, but lawmakers increased that to slightly less than $295 million.
Dan Cox, superintendent of the Jasper County School District, said that with gas around $4 per gallon and a fleet of aging buses, he will need every dollar he can get.
* Budget roundup…
* ADDED: Could state’s bus funding plan hurt suburbs?
* 4-H, Extension back in budget cross hairs: One version projects a cut worth $13 million, which could force layoffs and office closings throughout the state. The latest proposal comes a year after the Cooperative Extension received $7 million less in state funding, resulting in a statewide reorganization that included combining some counties into single operating units.
* Mayors tell Illinois to keep hands off tax dollars: The mayors scheduled a news conference Thursday at the Thompson Center in Chicago to discuss what they call a “hijack” of money designated for local governments. A confidential memo from Gov. Pat Quinn’s office last month mentioned keeping about $1 billion from local governments’ portion of state income tax revenue.
* The press tables at yesterday’s Senate Executive Committee hearing were both completely full. That’s not unusual. Senate Exec is a very powerful committee and as the session grows late Rm. 212 is the place to be.
But most reporters appeared to be waiting for a bill to be called which would lift the casino smoking ban. The AP ran a huge story on the hearing yesterday morning…
An Illinois Senate committee could deliberate Wednesday on a bill to allow smoking in casinos so gamblers don’t escape to Indiana, Iowa and Missouri.
Casino owners blame the bans for the loss of millions of dollars in revenues and the subsequent fall in tax receipts. The American Gaming Association estimates that about 20 percent of casino patrons smoke.
But gambling and smoking opponents say the loss claims are exaggerated and that the loopholes are bad public health policy. The Illinois bill passed the House 62-52, but faces stiff opposition from key senators and Gov. Pat Quinn.
“It’s discrimination against the people who work in casinos,” said Kathy Drea, vice president of advocacy for the American Lung Association in Illinois. “They’re saying their health isn’t worth the same as everyone else’s.”
* I didn’t play up the story much because I looked at the bill status yesterday morning to see where it had been assigned…
Traditionally, the chamber’s leader controls Exec with an iron grip. Bills go there to pass or to die based on orders from on-high. Senate President John Cullerton hates cigarettes with every fiber of his being. He once said he’d support a tax hike on cigs even if it wouldn’t raise a dime in new revenues.
Health activists say they have the votes to snuff out legislation that would allow smoking at Illinois casinos, but they didn’t get a chance to prove it Wednesday.
Sen. Martin Sandoval did not call his bill for a committee vote. The Chicago Democrat said he’s still building support by arguing the change would help create jobs.
Kathy Drea of the American Lung Association did not declare victory, but said she assumes Sandoval knows the bill would fail in the Senate.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has said he opposes the exemption for casinos, and Senate President John Cullerton actually was the sponsor of the statewide smoking ban. Cullerton has said he is “wildly opposed” to making any exemptions in the legislation.
Sandoval said he thinks he can gin up enough support from Republicans and Democrats to clear committee next week, and then take it up in the full Senate.
“I have a significant number of supporters on lifting the smoking ban, and I just want to work over the weekend to continue to solidify those votes,” Sandoval said. “I never underestimate the power of the Senate president. This is his committee. Nonetheless, at the end of the day, we may be able to find a balance.”
Sandoval pointed out that the other chamber’s leader, Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, voted for the measure when it passed the House.
“If it’s good enough for the speaker, it’s good enough for me,” Sandoval said.
That bill will get out of Senate Exec if and only if Cullerton says so…
The sponsor of a proposal allowing smoking in Illinois casinos said the idea might be dead because of opposition in the Senate.
State Rep. Daniel Burke, D-Chicago, said Wednesday he thought Senate President John Cullerton would not allow the legislation exempting casinos from the statewide indoor smoking ban to be called for a vote in a Senate committee. The Illinois House already has approved the measure.
* 9:41 am - My fax service crashed this morning and it’s still not working yet. I just activated my backup system, so today’s edition will be going out soon. Sorry for the delay. In the meantime, you can read today’s subscriber-only report by clicking here and using the password. Share it with others. Thanks.
* In talking with people this week who support the recently failed concealed carry bill, I heard about a possible compromise: Allow sheriffs to decide whether or not to hand out concealed carry permits. The current legislation requires sheriffs to approve the permits after applicants successfully complete their training. The argument is that making the sheriff language permissive would mean proponents wouldn’t have to carve out counties and towns which don’t want any part of a concealed carry law. That, they say, would make Illinois a patchwork of regulations which would be difficult to follow.
The other side of this, of course, is that even if the Cook County Sheriff decides not to issue any concealed carry permits, those with permits who live in other counties could still come to Chicago with their concealed weapons, which would certainly make things confusing for the police.
* The Question: Would you support changing the concealed carry bill to make the sheriff language permissive instead of a mandate? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please. Thanks.
…Adding… As always, please do not post drive-by, bumper-sticker slogans in comments. They annoy me, so come up with an original thought. Thanks.
Christopher Coleman was convicted of taking three lives, but St. Clair County Circuit Judge Milton Wharton has decided that Coleman gets to keep his.
Given Illinois’ plans to abolish the death penalty later this year, we didn’t expect the state to actually carry out the sentence. Still, we thought it would be Gov. Pat Quinn trying to explain why Coleman received mercy rather than the judge who knew the cold-blooded details of how Coleman plotted then strangled his wife Sheri and sons Gavin and Garett.
The judge said sentencing Coleman to life in prison would be the most expedient means of disposing of the case for the victims’ family. But after a two-year wait for the trial, they were much more interested in getting the full measure of justice than expediency.
Wharton said it would have been disappointing for Sheri Coleman’s family to have the governor later commute a death sentence as he had indicated he would. But having Coleman spared that sentence is also highly disappointing.
Just because the death penalty has been abolished doesn’t mean that the public debate is over. Far from it. Search Google News for Gov. Pat Quinn and the death penalty and you’ll get a whole lot of results. His name comes up all the time in stories about murder cases.
I’m not sure how long trend this will continue, but it can’t be good to constantly be associated with society’s worst of the worst. However, despite the BN-D’s editorializing, the jury struggled with this Coleman case according to the AP…
One juror, Kimberly Ferrari of Pinckneyville, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for Tuesday’s editions that all 12 members of the panel believed Coleman was the killer. But the nurse said several jurors initially were unwilling to convict him because the prosecution’s evidence was largely circumstantial, with nothing directly linking Coleman to the crime.
Early into deliberations, Ferrari said, jurors voted 8-4 in favor of convicting Coleman, though hours later that weakened to 7-5.
“Nothing solid or concrete, no murder weapon,” said Ferrari, who said she voted for guilty all along. “They all believed he did it. They were just trying to figure it out.”
The next day, she said, jurors shifted to 9-3, with jurors agreeing that dates listed on photographs on the cellphones of Coleman and his mistress, Tara Lintz, showed deception.
* We talked about the education budget a bit yesterday, but here’s a story that might knock your socks off. Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54 Assistant Superintendent Mohsin Dada has received three 22 percent pay raises during his contract and now makes $341,747 a year, which is $60,000 more than his boss…
Dada, who did not return phone calls seeking comment, is considered by the board to be the district’s chief financial officer and is retiring at the end of this year. He received those big raises in 2007, 2008 and 2009, which allowed him to nearly double his 2005 salary of $177,111 within six years.
Dada’s 2010 salary also made him the third highest paid public school employee in the state. […]
Board members believe they got a bargain in Dada.
“The reality is District 54 would not have had a balanced budget for the last 15 years without someone like Mohsin,” said board Secretary Karen Strykowski, who also noted she wasn’t on the board at the time Dada’s contract was negotiated. “This is the largest elementary school district in Illinois with over 2,000 employees and 14,000 students. In the private sector he would be making twice as much.”
A key reduction the panel endorsed calls for general state aid for all schools to be cut by about 4 percent, one lawmaker said. […]
The education foundation level, the figure viewed as the minimum amount of per-pupil spending, would remain flat at about $6,119, Davis said. If more money comes in later, the state could boost school spending, he added.
Transportation funds would rise to $294 million from the current $270 million, a level that had been considerably lower than in prior years, Davis said.
And early childhood education funding would drop to $325 million come July 1, which is about a 5 percent reduction, Davis said.
In the Springfield School District, a 4 percent reduction in state aid would cost the district about $1.4 million, said spokesman Pete Sherman.
“We’re already considering cuts to break as even as possible for our next fiscal year’s budget while at the same time going through collective bargaining with our teachers and other union employees,” Sherman said. “It’s a very challenging time as it is.”
The proposed budget would increase transportation spending, but the total is still less than was spent two years ago and less than the state Board of Education recommended.
* Meanwhile, Rep. Rosemary Mulligandenied a Daily Northwestern report yesterday that Human Services would be cut by 10 percent across the board. According to the Tribune, the House is looking to cut $368 million from the current human services budget…
Major cuts in the proposal include about $181 million from state operations and about $186 million in cuts to grants, such as social services that go to private organizations in communities throughout the state, she said.
Even so, many of the cuts Gov. Pat Quinn proposed for community-based substance abuse and mental health programs would see some money restored for their programs, she said. That move would represent a nod to the notion that prevention and treatment saves money in the long run.
Programs Quinn put on the chopping block for senior citizens, such as the circuit breaker program, would fare better with the House plan, Feigenholtz said. Another program at least partially saved from elimination would be Illinois Cares RX, she said. The programs have provided property tax relief and assistance in paying for prescription drugs.
One additional cost-savings move would cut even deeper than Quinn proposed for programs that pay for Medicaid services provided by doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and pharmacies, she said.
Balancing the budget, however, means slashing spending in areas that require the most money, said Charlie Wheeler, a public affairs reporting professor at the University of Springfield in Illinois.
“(Human services) does not spend as much as Medicaid, but human services as a (whole) does indeed spend a lot of money,” said Wheeler. “If you want to save big bucks, you have to cut programs that cost big bucks. That’s sort of elementary.”
Human services accounts for about 36 percent of the entire House budget.
* The SJ-R has more on that study by the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. COGFA looked at several spending and revenue scenarios over the next four years…
Only when spending was held flat would the state erase billions of red ink under the commission’s projections. However, that will prove difficult because of higher pension payments called for by a law designed to bring the systems to 90 percent funding by 2045, increased Medicaid costs and a desire by many lawmakers to spend more on items like education.
If the state spent $33.5 billion every year through fiscal year 2014, it would end up with a $3.5 billion operating budget surplus and a $2.1 billion overall surplus. The overall surplus is less because over the previous four fiscal years, the state would be gradually eliminating the $6.3 billion budget deficit it faced at the beginning of fiscal year 2011.
If spending increases were held to 2.7 percent annually, the state would still have an overall $3.4 billion deficit at the end of fiscal year 2014.
If spending were held to 4 percent increases each year, the state would have operating and overall deficits every year, including fiscal year 2012, which starts July 1.
A state official warned that Illinois is at risk of losing at least $1 billion a year in federal Medicaid funds because of a legislative panel’s decision Tuesday on how senior citizens needing nursing-home care can shelter assets.
If not reversed, the decision by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules could prompt the federal government to deny Illinois between $1 billion and $7 billion in Medicaid funds, according to James Parker, a deputy administrator at the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services. […]
On a 10-0 vote, JCAR stopped HFS’ proposed rules from taking effect Tuesday. The commission sided with opponents- including elder-law lawyers and senior groups - who said the provisions would penalize seniors and went beyond what is required to implement the federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. […]
The law shrinks loopholes that allow seniors to transfer assets to family members and friends and still qualify for Medicaid. Illinois and California are the last two states working to enact rules.
* Related…
* U of I pay hike a possibility: Hogan said the raise would be something below 4 percent under the best scenario — a 1 percent to 3 percent cut in the UI’s appropriation and no major new costs associated with pension reform or changes in health benefits.
* VIDEO: Rep. Mulligan on human services budget cuts
*** UPDATE 2 *** I hate to beat this thing to death, but since Sen. Cultra issued his statement I took a look at the video and he certainly doesn’t look like he was speaking tongue in cheek to me. Watch it for yourself…
Sen. Cultra also said more than was quoted below…
“In poorer families, they actually get money for their kids. I’d take that money away.”
*** UPDATE 1 *** Statement from Sen. Cultra…
“I certainly regret my choice of words in the recent debate on Senate Bill 396. It was a tongue-in-cheek comment taken out of context - and should not be taken seriously. I am sensitive to the need to reduce childhood obesity. But I don’t believe a new tax on everyone who buys juice, soda and energy drinks will accomplish the goal. Parents have to take some responsibility.”
An Illinois lawmaker says parents who have obese children should lose their state tax deduction.
“It’s the parents’ responsibility that have obese kids,” said state Sen. Shane Cultra, R-Onarga. “Take the tax deduction away for parents that have obese kids.”
Cultra has not introduced legislation to deny parents the $2,000 standard tax deduction
Of course he didn’t introduce a bill. No legislator is that crazy.
* Speaking of obesity, the sponsor of the Senate bill to tax sugary soft drinks by a penny an ounce says the legislation is going anywhere…
State Sen. William Delgado, D-Chicago, is sponsoring the measure. He said that after the recent income tax increase, the idea of more taxes has fallen flat among his colleagues. Delgado, a self-professed reformed soda drinker, said he hopes the interest groups involved in the debate could come up with another way to at least slow the amount of sugary drinks Illinoisans consume.
“The low cost of sugary beverages has made it possible for consumers to purchase these beverages at three to eight times the size of when sugary beverages first came on the market,” Elissa Bassler, director of Illinois Public Health Institute, said. “Eight- to 12-ounce cans used to be the norm, now 20 ounces are the norm, and it’s possible to find portions as large as half a gallon.”
Adding a quarter to the cost of that 24-ounce Pepsi would have a twofold effect, Bassler said. People would think twice before buying the drink, and at least half of the tax revenue would go to a special fund to fight obesity in the state.
Bassler said the tax increase would cause the average adult in the state to lose about three pounds, and the average child to lose about four pounds.
Total public spending on transport and water infrastructure has fallen steadily since the 1960s and now stands at 2.4% of GDP. Europe, by contrast, invests 5% of GDP in its infrastructure, while China is racing into the future at 9%. America’s spending as a share of GDP has not come close to European levels for over 50 years. Over that time funds for both capital investments and operations and maintenance have steadily dropped (see chart 2).
Although America still builds roads with enthusiasm, according to the OECD’s International Transport Forum, it spends considerably less than Europe on maintaining them. In 2006 America spent more than twice as much per person as Britain on new construction; but Britain spent 23% more per person maintaining its roads. […]
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that America needs to spend $20 billion more a year just to maintain its infrastructure at the present, inadequate, levels. Up to $80 billion a year in additional spending could be spent on projects which would show positive economic returns. Other reports go further. In 2005 Congress established the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission. In 2008 the commission reckoned that America needed at least $255 billion per year in transport spending over the next half-century to keep the system in good repair and make the needed upgrades. Current spending falls 60% short of that amount.
And the accompanying graph…
Discuss.
* Business roudup…
* ADDED: Move made to exempt bakeries from artificial trans fat ban
* ADDED: Editorial: Give craft brewers an exemption
* Amtrak can’t get new cars fast enough - Rail line to receive $286M fed grant: Additional rail cars and locomotives can’t come soon enough on three Illinois Amtrak lines expected to carry well over 1 million passengers this year, a spokesman said Monday… According to an Amtrak study released in February, the average rail passenger car in Illinois has traveled 2.5 million miles and is 20 to 21 years old.
* Caterpillar CEO tells industry to lobby Quinn on biz agenda: Noting that Illinois’ workers’ comp rate is seven times that of Indiana’s, Mr. Oberhelman said lawmakers must rewrite the law so it protects only workers hurt on the job. He also said the state should adopt the American Medical Assn.’s physician guidelines for compensation settlements, which are used by 37 states. “Those are two things we’re very close on,” he said.
* Transit agencies fear ‘loophole’ in tax bill: Addison Mayor Larry Hartwig is among numerous local mayors also concerned about losing revenues. Rival downstate counties are wooing suburban businesses with low taxes and promises of rebates, he said. And that’s unfair to towns that provide roads, police and fire protection and snowplowing to companies that send their tax dollars elsewhere.
* Whitley: Time is now to rebuild Illinois economy
* The White Sox Caucus is meeting tonight at 9 o’clock at DH Brown’s. We’re playing the Angels, so it’s a late game.
Also, tickets will be available for sale at tonight’s caucus event for our annual outing at Sox Park this July 25th. Hopefully, I’ll see you at both extravaganzas!
* Let’s make this a late afternoon/early evening MLB open thread. Go Sox.
* Look, I have no informed opinion one way or another about whether Cook County should be allowed to close Oak Forest Hospital and turn it into an outpatient clinic. But the vote today by the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board was certainly embarrassing for Gov. Pat Quinn…
The county plan needed five votes to be approved, but only five state board members were present today. Four board members voted for it, and one voted against. The nine-member hospital siting board has three vacancies that Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn needs to approve, and one member was absent today.
County officials blamed the vacancies on the board for today’s defeat. County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and health system leaders are regrouping and plan to hold a news conference this afternoon.
If we’re going to have this board, shouldn’t it have the requisite membership? Sheesh, man, get on the stick.
Oak Forest — which in its early history served as a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients — gets six or seven patient admissions a day, but doctors there primarily see people with health issues such as high blood pressure and diabetes who would be better cared for in an outpatient setting, according to Dr. Terry Mason, formerly the county health system’s chief medical officer and now interim chief executive.
Speaking with the SouthtownStar editorial board recently, Mason said Oak Forest isn’t set up to treat patients in need of emergency care.
“Our emergency department is nothing more than the end of a hallway,” he said.
In an analysis of the proposal for the board, the Illinois Department of Public Health determined that the elimination of hospital beds at Oak Forest would result in a shortage of intensive-care and long-term care beds in the Southland.
.But patients and residents in the area said the remaining health care facilities in southern Cook County was inadequate. Closing Oak Forest Hospital would be detrimental, they said. […]
Lynda DeLaforgue, co-director of Citizen Action Illinois, said the board’s vote gives the county a chance to reevaluate its strategic plan for health care and keep the hospital open.
Word’s been going around that President Preckwinkle may seek state legislation to allow her to close the hospital on her own.
* I can understand this person’s argument, but if Sears abandons its Prairie Stone campus in Hoffman Estates, there won’t be many businesses left in that development to pay taxes to the schools…
Allison Strupeck, a spokesperson for Community Unit School District 300 — of which the Sears property is a part — said that [tax incentive] expiration would work for the good of the Carpentersville-based school district, calling it “the light at the end of our fiscal tunnel.”
If that state extended those property tax incentives, she said, “we would not have any financial hope for the future of our school children.
“The light at the end of our fiscal tunnel would be snuffed out in one signature of the governor,” Strupeck said.
Because of the property tax incentives, the school district currently receives the same amount of tax dollars from the Sears property it did 21 years ago, according to the District 300 spokeswoman. But Prairie Stone and the nearby Arboretum shopping center have significantly increased the value of that property, she said.
* Bail Sears out with yet another tax giveaway and we look weak for being taken advantage of. Tell the company to take a flying leap and we look far weaker if they do depart, which won’t help our standing in the world, not to mention the most important part: We’ll lose thousands of good Illinois jobs in the process…
If Sears did pull up its longtime suburban roots, it could cost the state roughly $3 billion, with the loss of about 6,200 local jobs, the ensuing unemployment insurance paid to them and the loss to nearby hotels, businesses and vendors that could ripple through the local economy for years to come, [John Melaniphy, president of Melaniphy & Associates, a Chicago-based retail research firm] said.
A study commissioned by Sears reached a similar conclusion, saying the local job loss could total 9,000 if vendors, contractors and nearby businesses were included.
It’s often difficult to parse whether a company that takes incentives to stay was serious about leaving. In Motorola Mobility’s case, the company promised to spend more than $500 million on research and development over the next three years, essentially what the company already had planned to spend.
As for Sears, the company has been shifting the nucleus of decision-making outside the state in recent years.
Sears moved its apparel buying and merchandising office to San Francisco in 2010. About 80 percent of the staff has been hired as new employees since the move, the company said at its annual meeting last week.
Sears Chairman Edward Lampert, the hedge fund manager who combined Sears and Kmart in 2005, lives and works in Greenwich, Conn. And Sears’ newly appointed CEO and president, Lou D’Ambrosio, has spent most of his career on the East Coast.
* And this very serious mortgage problem isn’t going to get a whole lot better any time soon if we have no jobs…
More than four out of 10 homes with debt in the Chicago area now are worth less than their mortgages, according to a report released Monday.
Home values here have fallen so much that 45.7% of those with debt are “underwater,” meaning their owners’ equity has been completely wiped out, according to Zillow Inc. That’s up from 38.6% in fourth-quarter 2010 and 31.8% a year earlier.
Nationally, 28.4% of homes with mortgages have “negative equity,” up from 27% in the fourth quarter and 23.3% a year earlier, according to Zillow, a Seattle-based company that tracks the residential property market.
* State to give boost to West Side film studio working on ‘Boss’: But the Cinespace studio and its state subsidy could hurt Chicago Studio City, 5660 W. Taylor, which calls itself the biggest filming complex between the U.S. coasts. Owner John Crededio said the state has turned down his requests to help expand his nearly 120,000-square-foot facility. “I wish them well, but how do I compete when the state is subsidizing them?” he said.
Objection after objection, lawyers for Rod Blagojevich took a beating in court Monday. The judge ended the day with a stern warning: If the ex-governor’s team wanted to continue to ask improper questions, they will be sidelined.
Aaron Goldstein tried and tried, over and over, to ask questions of Monday’s witnesses John Harris and later Tom Balanoff, a union head. Almost every question was met with an objection –over 150 tallied for the day.
Over 150 objections sustained during one day? Wow.
Essentially what is happening here is Rod Blagojevich’s lawyer is attempting to put on a defense during cross-examination of the prosecution’s witness. He’s supposed to do that when he presents his own case. But, as you’ll recall, Blagojevich rested without presenting its side during the first trial. Judge Zagel is making sure that the defendant can’t backdoor his defense this time around. He’s also cracking down on deviations from his orders about using the “advice of counsel” defense - that the former governor checked with his lawyers before making decisions.
“I will sit you down,” he warned Blagojevich lawyer Aaron Goldstein, accusing him of violating court orders not to raise the argument that Blagojevich shouldn’t be found guilty because his advisers — most of them attorneys — never warned him that his actions might be illegal.
The judge said he thought Goldstein’s questioning of two witnesses had approached that forbidden area, particularly when the attorney asked one whether he had called authorities after a talk with Blagojevich about naming someone to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama in 2008. […]
Zagel lectured Goldstein in front of the jury for asking Harris too often about his awareness of things and not what he had seen and heard himself.
“This is not a man on the street being asked if he is aware if there are American troops in Pakistan,” the judge said.
And, several times, Goldstein suggested that, whatever other deals were being discussed on tape, Blagojevich was really intent on being a US Senator himself: “You understood, at this point, the governor wanted to appoint himself?” Four times, Goldstein asked a variation on that question. Objection. Objection. Objection. Objection. All were sustained, Zagel warning at one point, “I don’t want an argument disguised as a question.”
But if some questions seemed strategic, many others were barred because Goldstein simply couldn’t word them right. Three times, he tried to ask a question about a call Harris received from political publicist Marilyn Katz, in which she urged the then-governor to appoint Valerie Jarrett to the Senate.
Three times, the government objected to the wording of Goldstein’s queries. The defense lawyer actually apologized at one point, as he struggled to find an acceptable re-wording, but eventually gave up on the question.
Prosecutor Reid Schar asked Balanoff to walk the court through a series of conversations and meetings he had with Blagojevich regarding the possible appointees to the senate post, including Jarrett, and what he wanted in exchange. […]
Goldstein then pressed Balanoff about how he responded.
“After this meeting did you call the authorities?”
Zagel told Goldstein that the defense can’t build on the proposition that because Balanoff didn’t go to the authorities after meetings he had with Blagojevich that “no crime had been committed.”
With her defendant husband at her side, a visibly angry Patti Blagojevich stepped up to the microphone after court to decry what she called “a deliberate attempt to hide the truth” after U.S. District Judge James Zagel spent much of the day blocking witnesses from answering many of the defense lawyers’ questions. Zagel said the questions were improper and were a way for Blagojevich’s lawyers to back-door an improper defense, in violation of his previous orders.
“I almost want to cry,” Patti Blagojevich said after court. “I’m no lawyer, but I thought the whole idea of this was to get the truth to come out, and that’s clearly not what’s happening here.”
Essentially, the resolution would mean that teachers would be encouraged to use the not-for-profit program. The program is run by Nancy Cartwright, who is the voice of Bart Simpson. But, she’s also a Scientologist and the program is based on L. Ron Hubbard’s book “The Way to Happiness.” That connection to the religion has at least one lawmaker up in arms…
Republicans on the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee initially were unaware that Cartwright’s program was influenced by a Hubbard book. Upon learning that, the panel’s ranking Republican voiced concern over the resolution.
“Would we suggest the KKK for something like this?” asked Rep. Jerry Mitchell (R-Sterling), a former school superintendent. “This might be something for a select private school, but I’m not sure it’s germane for a public school.”
* So, what prompted Rep. Burke to run his resolution? Hollywood, baby….
Initial reservations set aside, Burke said he became enthusiastic about backing the resolution because it would be “fun to have Bart Simpson’s voice down there.”
Sometimes, a fun little publicity stunt can backfire. Or partially backfire, as the case may be. Ms. Cartwright will be in Springfield tonight for a reception. We’ll see how it goes.
Defendants accused of rape, homicide, drug dealing and other serious crimes in five rural Southern Illinois counties have paid thousands of dollars into “anti-crime” funds that benefit or are controlled by local prosecutors in return for probation or dismissal of charges.
Professors at some of the nation’s top law schools say this practice undermines public trust in courts and gives the appearance that defendants with enough money get preferential treatment and can buy their way out of trouble. They say such payments violate a basic ethical principle: Monetary contributions or payments resulting from plea bargains should not in any way benefit or appear to benefit the offices of the prosecutor, the judge or police involved in the prosecution.
“It is clearly unethical and a violation of the Constitution,” said legal ethics expert Monroe H. Freedman, a professor at Hofstra University Law School in Hempstead, N.Y. Like other experts contacted for this story, Freedman cautioned he was not commenting about any specific case.
A Belleville News-Democrat investigation found that payments negotiated by prosecutors and approved by judges ranging from $1,000 to $15,000 resulted in probation or dismissal of felonies in 17 cases in Saline, Pulaski, Franklin, Wayne and Hardin counties.
Ugh.
* Related…
* Losing congressional candidate Dan Seals gets state job: Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn [yesterday] hired Seals as his $121,090-a-year assistant director of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. He starts Tuesday.
* Tollway political hires fired for slacking off, harassment
State Rep. Kenneth Dunkin, D-Chicago, who heads the budget committee on higher education, said his group made it under the House’s higher education budget goal of $2.1 billion by targeting for-profit schools through the state’s monetary award program, or MAP. […]
MAP funds were reduced by $17 million, which represents the largest cut for the higher education budget, Dunkin said. The program’s grants offer financial aid to Illinois residents who attend approved state colleges and demonstrate financial need.
General services also stayed in the black, making the largest cuts to those agencies that had a record of mismanagement based on audit reports, said state Rep. Fred Crespo, D-Streamwood, who chaired the general services appropriations committee. The agencies with records of mismanagement are Department of Revenue, Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and the Department of Central Management Services.
About 15 percent was cut across the board from fiscal year 2011 from the three agencies, said Crespo, who pointed to smaller cuts for all agencies in telecommunications and contractual services.
After spending hours debating individual line items, “…we realized we (couldn’t) keep nickel-diming this thing. We need to look at fundamentally how to make big cuts to really bring down that number,” Crespo said.
The K-12 approp isn’t finished yet, however…
For elementary and high school education, state Rep. William Davis, D-East Hazel Crest, expects to keep most spending flat, with most of the cuts coming from general state aid. As a result, school districts should expect 96 percent of a fully funded budget.
School transportation was the only line item that saw increased funding, Davis said.
“We left the table with something to give the Republicans to look at. I do not know if they will or will not agree with this idea. That wasn’t decided when we parted company,” said Davis, who emphasized that the budgeting process for $6.8 billion was still ongoing.
* ISN didn’t have numbers for the House Human Services Committee, but the Daily Northwestern did…
The Illinois House finalized a bill to cut state funding for the Department of Human Services by $500 million to $600 million Monday, six days after Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois & Indiana, a group that represents health care workers in Illinois, launched its advertising campaign to advocate full funding for its Child Care Assistance Program and Home Service Program, which operate under the DHS.
“It’s not that I don’t agree with the ads,” said Rep. Patricia Bellock (R-Westmont),, a member of the House Appropriations Human Services Committee. “The bottom line is, we cannot continue to provide services and not pay the provider.”
The new bill will slash state funding to the DHS, Illinois’ largest state agency, by more than 10 percent. The House committee agreed to an across-the-board cut in order to reduce the impact on individual programs, Bellock said. It also reinstated a few programs previously cut in Gov. Quinn’s budget, such as youth prevention programs and substance abuse programs.
“Rather than a few agencies take huge cuts, we try to make it that all agencies will take smaller cuts,” Bellock said.
Whatever comes out of the legislature budgeting process will involve real cuts in people programs. There will thus be intense pressure to increase revenue — painlessly.
So expect a strong push by gambling interests to expand gaming to include a casino in Chicago and others downstate, plus slots at the tracks. This could generate $1 billion plus in license fees this coming year and maybe $500 million a year later in annual tax revenue. Increasing the cigarette tax by a buck a pack could generate $300 million a year.
And “decoupling” Illinois from a federal “bonus depreciation schedule” for industry equipment purchases could raise another $600 million. Business, which already feels the state climate unfriendly, will fight this, as it would come on top of a new 9.5 percent corporate income tax rate.
I can see foresee the legislature sending the governor a budget less than he believes necessary, which could cause him to veto it and send the legislature back into special session.
Sen. Suzi Schmidt’s district office phone wasn’t working Monday, which she attributed to the state’s tardiness in paying the bill.
Schmidt’s Lake Villa office number greeted the caller with the following recorded message: “The party you are trying to reach is not currently accepting calls at this number.” […]
Gov. Pat Quinn has proposed borrowing billions of dollars to pay overdue bills and then paying off the loans with money from the recent income tax increase.
But lawmakers — Schmidt’s fellow Republicans in particular — have resisted Quinn’s plan, saying the state shouldn’t be borrowing more money.
* The State Journal-Register has editorialized in favor of cutting pension benefits for current employees, and now grieves when one top employee - Illinois State Historian Tom Schwartz - decides to leave…
While we believe Schwartz is the perfect choice to advance Hoover’s legacy [at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum], we noted with disappointment that the dismal state of financial affairs in Illinois played at least a minor role in Schwartz’s decision to leave.
“In the last two years, to take 36 furlough days is not fun,” Schwartz said. “It could be worse. The poor state workers in California are taking 48. But it doesn’t give one a lot of confidence about the future and discussions about changing pension systems and health-care plans are changing all the time to meet the state’s requirements. This is more stability, I think, in planning for the future.”
Schwartz was emphatic that the opportunity presented by the Hoover library job far outweighed any other factors in his decision.
But his mere mention of the less appealing terms of his employment in the last two years made us wonder: How many other professionals of Schwartz’s caliber does the state risk losing in similar fashion because of its precarious budget situation?
* Related…
* Tribune editorial: Oh, the temptation - Will a temporary Illinois tax hike become permanent?
* Adam Andrzejewski: Local tax share “welfare payment to local governments”
* Heartland Community College leaders urge lawmakers to fight for more funding
* Area lawmaker favors eliminating state gas sales tax
* “Illinois Is Broke” Peddles Broken Rhetoric: The class envy angle is particularly cynical, because the main reason private employees don’t enjoy the same benefits as public employees is that groups such as the Commercial Club have been so successful in destroying the labor movement. Now, they’re trying to turn the impoverished lower-middle class they helped create against one of the last remnants of the middle class, all so the upper class can pay less taxes.
* No doubt you’ve heard of the new Men’s Health magazine cover story on Congressman Aaron Schock: “The Ripped Representative - Fit-to-lead Congressman Aaron Schock has a plan to change America, one set of crunches at a time.” And the cover photo…
How is Illinois Republican Rep. Aaron Schock’s recent bare-chested cover photo on Men’s Health magazine playing at home in Peoria? One local Republican says not terribly well.
Rudy Lewis, Peoria County GOP chairman says “It probably wasn’t the best thing he [Schock] could have done.”
Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) is taking an unconventional approach to promote a new healthy lifestyles campaign, flaunting his chiseled chest on the cover of the new Men’s Health Magazine, which declares him “America’s Fittest Congressman.” […]
Schock, who turns 30 later this month, had previously drawn attention from gossip sites like TMZ, which posted a photo of him wearing only a bathing suit. He said he wanted to use the notoriety for a positive cause.
“You know, there is some risk with it, but I think it’s risk worth taking,” he said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show Monday, citing the challenge of rising health costs. Eight of 10 dollars the government spends on health care is on preventable diseases, he says in Men’s Health.
The rest of us could find it a tad peculiar to see our elected representative spotlighted in shirtless splendor. I don’t recall anyone ever confusing Bob Michel with a Chippendale’s dancer. And though you occasionally could find Ray LaHood plodding along various 5K races around Peoria, he wasn’t known for his intimidating physique, except perhaps World’s Mightiest Eyebrows.
But there is Schock, in several strapping magazine shots, amid the tags, “America’s Fittest Congressman” and “The Ripped Representative.” The latter description still probably fits many elected Washington muckety-mucks, not for bicep curls but 12-ounce curls. But not so much for our congressional Boy Scout, who also turns his head away from rumaki and other tasty tidbits.
“You can pack a lot of calories on the end of a toothpick,” Schock tells Men’s Health. “You have a drink and a few hors d’oeuvres and you’ve just downed hundreds of calories.”
Yep, Mr. Goodie Two Shoes. You look at the magazine cover and - even though now he is 29 and we know his youthful-politician backstory - you nonetheless can’t help but think it’s a head shot of Doogie Howser with a model’s bod Photoshopped below.
* I thought about posting the pics yesterday, but didn’t want to monitor the comments. However, Schock is widely rumored to be considering a statewide bid, so we ought to do something. Let’s take a poll, shall we?
