* NBC5’s Mary Ann Ahern asked Gov. Pat Quinn today whether he was planning to pick former US Rep. Debbie Halvorson to run the Illinois Department of Transportation. Nope…
“I like Debbie,” Quinn, who appoints the position, said after an event announcing funding for a high speed rail projects. “But I have someone else in mind.”
Halvorson was at the same event, so that couldn’t have been a pleasant moment for either of them. But you can be sure that Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. is happy as a clam. He’s in power and she isn’t. Plus, his district voted for Quinn and hers didn’t. Fairly simple.
* Sometimes, Facebook actually motivates people to take “real world” action…
A virtual war of words on a social networking site led to a real fight between two men in Franklin County Monday. […]
“The two had been arguing on Facebook most of the night, which then escalated into a challenge to a fight,” Jones said.
The two met up at the parking lot and went at it in front of several spectators who had gathered for the fight, Jones said.
A crowd gathered, eh? Kinda gives a whole new meaning to the term “flash mob.”
* But sometimes, Facebook just isn’t enough. As I believe I’ve told you before, some tea party folks are organizing “THE ILLINOIS STATE WIDE TAX REVOLT” on Facebook. So far, a bit over 100 people say they’re attending the April 15th march on the Statehouse to protest the tax hikes. That ain’t a whole lot. And there are some other problems…
I have a bus reserved to leave from Rockford Cherry Vale Mall to go to this event on April 15. So far 6 out of 56 seats are spoken for. If this does not change soon I will have to cancell the bus. Seats cost $30 round trip on a charter bus with toilet and DVD player. If you want to go contact me ASAP to reserve your seat. If not we will all be driving down, and gas cost a lot more than $30 round trip!
I have been talking to FOX New Network. They are gathering info so if they call you…let them know. I just got off the phone with… Michele Nunes with Fox.
You’d think as upset as some people are about this tax hike that there would be more interest in the protest. There’s still time, of course, but so far, that Facebook-inspired redneck brawl looks far more interesting to me.
* Speaking of the online world, racist, boorish newspaper website comment sections are causing some folks to take action…
When the Tribune and Sun-Times recently posted stories dealing with immigration, Sara McElmurry saw a familiar dynamic take shape. The online comments following the pieces were heavily negative, with some casting immigrants as parasites or welfare cheats.
So McElmurry, communications manager for the Chicago-based advocacy group Latino Policy Forum, shot an email to her “Comment Corps” — a list of 3,000 people she asks to intervene when she believes online comments have become bigoted or monolithic.
But it doesn’t always work…
She’s part of the Comment Corps, and this month she leaped into the fray after the Daily Herald published a story about a protest over alleged police harassment of Hispanics. The great majority of the comments criticized the protesters, and when Brito tried to present a different opinion, her posts were buried under a barrage of “thumbs down” votes (more than four generally hides the comment from view).
Some of those newspaper comment sections are just totally out of control. The inmates are truly running the asylum. What a stupid business decision that is. Of course, newspaper owners are not exactly known for great business acumen.
* Speaking of newspapers, I sent the Sun-Times an e-mail today asking the higher-ups to please, pretty please with sugar on top, take a look at why so many old stories are suddenly popping up on their RSS feeds as brand new. Just scroll down and look to the right and you’ll see what I’m talking about. I’m breathlessly awaiting a response.
A multimillion-dollar operation under state contract was supposed to be taking care of people with special needs. Instead, its employees are accused of fatally beating two residents and several incidents of abuse. […]
Forty-two-year-old Paul McCann suffered a brutal beating in January. The man called a gentle giant, who functioned at the level of a 6-year-old, was punched, kicked, and struck with a frying pan inside his group home for reportedly taking a cookie.
McCann’s death was ruled a homicide and two men were arrested. The family has filed a lawsuit…
The lawsuit claims that the group home employees would pile heavy books on McCann’s outstretched arms, then beat him when he dropped them.
Also, the lawsuit will allege that McCann had been abused before the Jan. 19 beating. Kathleen Slovick, McCann’s sister, noticed McCann had broken his nose in April 2010. In response to McCann’s broken nose, the Illinois Department of Human Services sent Lois McCann, Paul McCann’s mother, a four-word letter response that stated, “The findings were unfounded.”
State records obtained by CBS 2, which date back to 2003, reveal 33 cases of Graywood staff abusing residents. Those cases included sexual abuse, physical battery and alleged coercion of residents to attack each other.
Even worse, in 2008, a resident named Dustin Higgins was murdered by staff. That death prompted an internal memo from the Illinois Department of Human Services Inspector General. The memo warned that Graywood residents were at risk amid an increase of serious allegations of abuse and neglect.
A resident is murdered by facility staff three years ago and it prompted an internal DHS memo, but apparently not much else because human beings were still being sent there, even though it had a “substantiated abuse rate” which was double the state average. Great job, DHS. Raises for everybody!
They found caregivers dumping water on people when they wouldn’t do their chores or get out of bed.
Other cases involved employees biting, punching, and threatening the developmentally disabled clients they were taking care of.
Many only have the capacity of a child.
And, yet, this facility has received $30 million in taxpayer money since 2001? The mind reels. Thankfully, DHS is finally moving residents out of there next week. Too late for McCann and the rest, however. I do not understand how the people at DHS who knew about this place could possibly sleep at night.
One of the government’s prime jobs is to help care for people who cannot care for themselves. The abominable treatment of residents alleged at that facility and the unconscionably slow pace of state action makes me ill.
My great aunt is severely mentally disabled and lives in a facility in Iroquois County. I can’t imagine what would happen if my family found out something like that had happened to her. It wouldn’t be pretty, I guarantee it.
I can feel my blood boiling right now, so I better stop writing.
* The General Assembly is off this week, so the news is pretty darned slow around here, and my mind is on spring training. So, let’s have a bit of fun…
That would be Gov. Quinn with Jennifer Beals, the star of The Chicago Code.
* The Illinois Student Assistance Commission should win an award for boneheaded moves. On Friday, it sent out a notice that applications for MAP grants would be closed on Monday. It was the earliest deadline ever, and caught pretty much everyone by surprise.
Yesterday, ISAC backtracked and extended the deadline to Friday. But the extension may not have been out of the goodness of their little hearts…
One of the reasons for the extension may be due to a malfunction at the processing center.
“The processing center had an outage from Saturday to Sunday,” said financial aid office director Kathleen Brunson. “We told students we needed them to get that FAFSA done when they couldn’t, so I believe that’s the reason for the extension.”
Jordan said students used to be able to mail their FAFSA as late as August to be eligible for the MAP grant. The deadline then was shortened to July, then April 19 and now March 25.
Sheesh.
* I’ve been telling subscribers about this for several days, but haven’t posted anything here. A jumbled mess like this post seems as good a time as any…
The most vocal supporter of a proposed south suburban airport near Peotone is publicly opposing a former colleague’s apparent bid to be named head of the state’s transportation department.
Incumbent Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary Gary Hannig has announced he is stepping down after the spring legislative session, which is set to conclude by the end of May.
Former 11th District U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson told the Kankakee Daily Journal she is seeking the position and has the support of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Illinois Senate President John Cullerton and others.
U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. said Halvorson is not qualified to be transportation secretary and that any consideration of her for the post would endanger the airport plan and other state transportation issues.
If you wanna seem something really odd, though, watch Halvorson explain the new book she’s writing. Yeesh.
A top prosecutor said he spent hours filling out questionnaires, editing speeches and tending to other political duties while working for McHenry County State’s Attorney Louis Bianchi.
Thomas J. Carroll testified Monday that he and other high-ranking staffers frequently did such political work during office hours under Bianchi’s direction.
“We had different tasks assigned us,” said Carroll, who served as Bianchi’s first assistant from 2005 until 2008, before he was demoted to a lower post.
Bianchi, a Republican serving his second term, faces felony charges alleging he ordered employees to do political work for him on county time. He has denied doing anything improper and remains in office.
* I don’t quite get the last sentence in this story…
Popular daily coupon website Groupon’s Chicago headquarters was the site of the first meeting of the Illinois Innovation Council.
Gov. Pat Quinn’s office says the Monday meeting focused on where Illinois can be a hub for innovation and where Illinois is an emerging leader, like clean energy, biotech and life sciences and information technology. […]
Other entities participating in the council include Reggio’s Pizza, Argonne National Laboratory and Baxter International Inc.
I bet that’s the first time Argonne and Reggio’s Pizza have ever been in the same sentence.
The use of traditional phone service has dropped to the point that broadband connections now exceed the number of landlines in Illinois.
Figures released on Monday by federal and state regulators showed that high-speed Internet connections outnumbered landlines in 2010 for the first time. Landline usage in the state dropped 31 percent from 2001 to 6.2 million, while the number of high-speed connections jumped from 423,000 to 6.4 million in that period.
Landlines have trailed mobile wireless connections since 2005. Illinois had about 11.6 million wireless subscribers last year.
* Those of you with children about to get a driver’s license, beware. Fees may be going up…
The maximum price high schools can charge students for driver’s education might soon be increased, thanks to state Rep. Sandy Pihos (R-42nd).
Pihos is sponsoring a House bill that would push the standard maximum fee from $50 per student to $250 per student for those taking in-school driver’s education classes, beginning with the 2012-13 school year. Waivers would be available to districts who decide they want to charge more than $250.
According to Pihos, 33 percent of the state’s school districts already apply for and receive waivers from the state that allow them to charge more than the $50. Those waivers, Pihos said, range from $75 per student to $500 per student depending on the district. […]
“I’ve worked hard with the teachers association and the drivers ed association; they are in support of the bill,” Pihos said. “In fact, as far as I can remember, there’s nobody in opposition to the bill. Through the years I haven’t had a constituent call…and express a concern.”
This actually makes sense, since so many districts apply for what are generally automatically approved waivers anyway. But some parents may not be so enamored with the fee hike.
Lisa Madigan wants to publish the names of everyone who has a Firearms Owners Identification (FOID) card. The law requires everyone who owns or handles a gun to have a FOID card.
There are many youngsters who shoot in competitions and re-enactments who would be on this list. Publishing names of law-abiding citizens by government decree also reminds me of history, namely 1936-1941 and Hitler.
* Phil Kadner has an excellent column on the late Sun-Times owner Jim Tyree…
James Tyree was about 10 years old when his alcoholic father left home, and he and his mother moved from a house in Chicago’s Beverly community to a basement apartment in Oak Lawn.
“I got the bedroom, and she slept on basically a futon in the living room,” Tyree told me last year.
About 30 years later, having worked his way through Illinois State University, Tyree was managing a multimillion-dollar international investment business. […]
What impressed me was the receptionist in the lobby of the Mesirow Financial building. As I waited for my interview with Tyree, I asked her if she had ever met the man.
“Oh, yes,” she said.
What’s he like? A real jerk, I bet?
“He’s just the nicest person. Down to earth. Talks to everyone like they’re human,” she said.
And that turned out to be an absolutely accurate description. […]
The one thing that everyone I spoke with said about Jim Tyree was this: “He’s just a really good guy.”
Of all his amazing accomplishments in life, I think that may have been his greatest.
And I think he would be darn proud to have that as his epitaph.
The two of us meant to get together to talk about the future of the paper, but I never got around to it and then he got sick. From everything I’ve heard and read about the man, he was truly a decent guy. My heart goes out to his family and his many friends. His widow is having a particularly difficult time right now because her father died just two days after her husband passed away. My thoughts are with her.
* Meanwhile, I’ve spent many a night watching Pinetop Perkins play the Boogie Woogie at Rosa’s Lounge. Often accompanied by Sugar Blue on the harmonica and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith on drums, the last of the great Mississippi bluesmen always put on a fine show. You had to get there early for the Saturday night shows, however, because Perkins stopped playing at midnight. He wouldn’t perform on a Sunday.
It was a thrill to see the 97-years young musician and Smith win a Grammy Award this year. But Perkins passed away in Austin, Texas yesterday. He’s gonna be missed…
Perkins’ skills came not from any sort of formal training but from an innate ability and love for a musical form that arose from the South’s plantation system.
“I didn’t get no schooling. I come up the hard way in the world,” Perkins told The Associated Press in a 2009 interview.
Bob Corritore, a harmonica player who performed occasionally with Perkins and produced some of his work, said, “Pinetop could find the cracks and fill them in and be the glue and mortar of the whole band.”
* For some reason or another, I forgot to post my weekly syndicated newspaper column yesterday. Not sure why. Here it is…
A big question on a lot of Statehouse minds right now is: Why would Senate President John Cullerton all of a sudden decide to string out his members yet again on a dollar-a-pack cigarette tax hike when he surely knows that the House will kill it for the umpteenth time?
Cullerton wants to raise money from the cigarette tax so he can kill off the controversial law legalizing video gaming in taverns, clubs and truck stops. Video gaming proceeds are supposed to subsidize part of the state’s massive capital construction plan, but the video gaming program hasn’t got off the ground after two years of preparations because the Illinois Gaming Board is taking its time to develop strict standards.
Part of the answer is that Cullerton loves the cigarette tax hike idea in and of itself. The man just downright loathes cigarettes and believes raising the tax would cause people to stop smoking and prevent kids from starting.
But when the four legislative leaders sit down to cut a deal, they’re supposed to stick to that deal unless the other leaders go along. The capital plan was just such an agreement. Breaking a pact like that is just not done. Ever.
You rarely see stories about the tax and fee hikes that fund the state’s construction program, and you don’t see many articles about some of the more questionable projects in the package. That’s because all the leaders vowed to each other that they wouldn’t stir up any trouble. Those vows are usually as solemn as any priest’s, so they’re never violated, but Cullerton is now doing it. Why?
Cullerton is said to be tired of Democrats being blamed for the video poker law, which has been blasted by most editorial pages in the state. “Maybe now they’ll understand that it was the Republicans who wanted this, not us,” explained a Cullerton aide last week.
The Republicans actually came up with the idea of legalizing video gaming in taverns, clubs and truck stops. But the Democrats have worn the jacket for the much-maligned program because they’re in the majority and the hugely controversial Cook County Democratic Party Chairman Joe Berrios was one of the top lobbyists for the video gaming industry.
It didn’t help matters much when former mobster turned government informant Frank Calabrese, Jr. told Fox Chicago the other day that he believed infiltrating the video poker industry would be a piece of cake.
“I mean, I laughed when I seen that,” Calabrese told Fox’s Dane Placko about the video poker legalization measure. “I mean, really. Why? I could go back there and show you how fast I could get in the middle of it,” he said from his Arizona house.
“It’s Math 101, OK? I’m not gonna go in there and put my name on a license and buy a bar and ask for three machines. I’m coming to you who’s totally legit and say you’re gonna buy the machines from this guy, and this is what you’re gonna pay him and that guy’s gonna help me in some way,” Calabrese said.
In the same story, former FBI organized crime director Tom Bourgeois told the channel that the General Assembly had opened the doors to the Outfit.
“You’re just providing an avenue for organized crime to re-root itself and find ways to become more powerful. It’s just too easy to do that and of course, the legislation provides opportunity for very little oversight,” Bourgeois claimed.
In reality, neither Calabrese nor Bourgeois are likely correct. For one thing, the current “amusement purposes only” video poker machines (most of which actually pay out in the real world) are already connected to the mob in one way or another. Legalization is seen by proponents as a way to get the mob out, not let them in.
To that end, the Illinois Gaming Board has spent almost two years attempting to devise a fail-safe plan to prevent organized crime from sticking its nose into the new business. A mobster just couldn’t strong-arm a tavern owner into using a particular machine, as Calabrese claimed, because machine distributors will have to undergo vigorous background checks and deal with strict government oversight — neither of which happens today.
So, publicly disassociating himself from video poker and letting Republicans take the lead in keeping the law on the books has real public relations and partisan advantages for the Senate president. And that’s why he’s doing it.
The Illinois State Board of Elections decided Monday that a deep-pocketed new political action committee does not have to disclose the original donors that provided the bulk of its funding.
In a 7-1 decision, the board agreed with a hearing officer’s reccomendation issued Friday that For A Better Chicago is not in violation of state by law by refusing to make public the source of $855,000 in contributions, which were used to help the PAC’s endorsed candidates for the City Council. […]
Greg Goldner, the chairman of For A Better Chicago, created a corporation in October called For A Better Chicago, which raised almost $1 million from undisclosed donors. The corporation transferred much of that amount into an eponymous, newly formed state political action committee in late December. […]
David Morrison, the deputy director for the ICPR, told the CNC it makes little sense that the For A Better Chicago corporation and political action committee are separate entities when both share the same office space and officers. He urged state lawmakers to address this opening in election law.
Donors to 501(c)4 groups are allowed to be kept secret under federal law, so I don’t see how the state is supposed to force it to open its books.
Rod Blagojevich’s judge scoffed at the ex-governor’s request to “cancel” his trial, essentially calling it a publicity stunt.
U.S. District Judge James Zagel said he had no legal authority to dismiss charges, that’s something only prosecutors can do. Blagojevich had asked Zagel to cancel his second trial and sentence him immediately.
Zagel said he believed the request was “intended for an audience different than the court.”
At a status hearing today in the case, Zagel suggested there was nothing to rule on, in part because Blagojevich’s lawyers did not properly present the motion to the court. With that, he suggested the idea would “vanish into thin air.”
But Blagojevich’s team persisted, asking for ruling. Zagel granted them time to properly file the motion – but not without making it clear how he felt about the idea, saying the team had not raised a legal question for a judge to consider.
* This is probably no surprise. Click the pic for a larger view…
Quinn’s not up again for a while yet, but Democratic legislators have to be experiencing serious indigestion problems right about now. They’re all up next year.
As I’ve said before, too much change causes reactions like this, and people are neither going to forget nor forgive this tax hike any time soon.
1,184 registered Illinois voters. Taken yesterday by We Ask America, which claims that “the poll was geographically balanced and had a 38%/31%/31% ratio of Democrats/Republicans/Independents responding.”
* It turns out that Gov. Pat Quinn did talk to a survivor of somebody who had been killed by an inmate currently on Death Row when the governor was deciding what to do about the death penalty. Technically, however, no survivors of victims killed by people actually sentenced to death row were consulted…
Quinn told reporters that he talked to advocates on either end of the death penalty spectrum while weighing the issue, but the governor specifically acknowledged he did not speak to any family members whose loved ones were killed by the 15 on death row.
“I think I listened to many, many people on both sides of this issue. I think it is probably impossible for me to talk to everyone,” Quinn said.
After Quinn made that statement a week and a half ago, his office Friday clarified the governor’s assertion that he had not met with any family members who had loved ones murdered by someone on Death Row.
In a late February meeting with anti-abolitionists, the governor met with prosecutors, the family of slain Chicago cop Thomas Wortham, and Roger Schnorr, whose sister, Donna, was raped and murdered by death row inmate Brian Dugan, Quinn spokeswoman Annie Thompson said.
Dugan was sentenced to life in prison for killing Donna Schnorr, but Dugan’s actual death sentence came in 2009 for the 1983 murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico, of Naperville.
* The Question: Should Gov. Quinn have taken the time to meet with more survivors of the victims of Death Row inmates? Explain.
* The AP and the Atlantic both ran stories over the weekend about Pat Quinn the liberal. The AP…
As Republican governors across the U.S. gain momentum with conservative agendas, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn has stood out for signing a string of laws over the past three months achieving longstanding liberal goals: abolishing the death penalty, legalizing civil unions and raising income taxes.
“Governors like Martin O’Malley, [Illinois’s] Pat Quinn, and [Montana’s] Brian Schweitzer have been willing to sit down and work with us to come up with real solutions to real problems,” American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees President Gerald McEntee said in a statement. “Our members understand the current fiscal situation and have made enormous concessions.”
* But Quinn is also pushing a bill that, in its current form, would strip 4,000 state employees of their union membership, according to AFSCME…
A week after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signed a sweeping bill limiting collective bargaining rights for public employees, Illinois state worker unions are worrying that something similar may happen in Springfield.
Gov. Pat Quinn’s staff hopes to revive a proposal to strip collective bargaining rights from state workers in management positions. […]
Currently, 96 percent of the state’s more than 45,000 employees are unionized, but that number could climb to 99 percent because of requests to join unions pending before the State Board of Labor Relations, according to House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, who sponsored the bill in the House during the lame-duck session.
“If you want to run the ship of state, you have to have people who are able to stay past 5 o’clock, who are committed to working overtime and who, if privy to information that is important, have a clear allegiance and loyalty to the government, not to their union local,” Currie said.
Employees at the state’s Department of Human Services office in Skokie are claiming a “guarded victory” in their dispute over a plan that would have required them to pay for parking in a lot about two blocks from the facility.
Steve Edwards, president of Local 2858 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said that the union received an e-mail from the state saying the planned parking change would be put on hold indefinitely.
We are moving to Texas where there is no income tax while Illinois’ just went up 67%. Texas’ sales tax is ½ of ours, which is the highest in the nation. Southern states are supportive of job producers, tax payers and folks who offer opportunities to their residents. Illinois shakes them down for every penny that can be extorted from them.
In The Hill Country of Texas (near Austin and San Antonio) we bought a gracious home on almost 2 acres with a swimming pool. It is new, will cost us around 40% of what our home in Wilmette just sold for and the property taxes are 1/3rd of what they are here. Crook County’s property tax system is a disaster: Wilmette homes near ours sell for 50% more and their property taxes are ½ of ours. Our assessed home value was 50% higher than the sales price. The system is unfair and incompetent.
Our home value is down 40%, our property taxes are up 20% and our local schools have still another referendum on the ballot to increase taxes over 20% in one year. I could go on, but enough is enough. I feel as if we are standing on the deck of the Titanic and I can see the icebergs right in front of us. I will miss our friends a great deal. I have called Illinois home for essentially my entire life. But it is time to go where there is honest, competent and cost effective government. We have chosen to vote with our feet and our wallets. My best to all of you and Good luck!
Discuss.
* Related…
* Friday deadline for state financial aid, earliest cut-off in history
* Affluent schools also feel financial strain - Wealthier districts face unfamiliar cuts as tax revenue shrinks
* State school board reports 2,000 teacher layoffs in 2010
* School Districts Cut Teachers, Art, And Other Programs To Make Ends Meet
Lake Michigan, long considered the sewage outlet of last resort, has been hit harder during the past four years than it was in the previous two decades combined.
Between 2007 and 2010, records show, the agency in charge of Deep Tunnel dumped nearly 19 billion gallons of storm water teeming with disease-causing and fish-killing waste into the Great Lake, the source of drinking water for 7 million people in Chicago and its suburbs. By contrast, 12 billion gallons poured out between 1985 and 2006 […]
Last year alone, sewage overflows into local streams contained an estimated 335 million pounds of suspended solids, a technical term for human and industrial waste and debris contaminating the water. Signs caution that the waterways are “not suitable for any human body contact” and “may contain bacteria that can cause illness.”
District officials now say that while building the tunnels, engineers realized that they would need to rely more on the second phase of the project — the flood-control reservoirs — to reduce pollution. Another complicating factor is that the district was forced early on to limit how fast water drained into the system. Shortly after the first tunnels were opened, rapid changes in water pressure shot geysers of sewage out of ventilation shafts along city streets, in one case flooding the car of a 61-year-old Bridgeport woman who had stopped above a manhole grate.
Mayor Daley and others have routinely blamed Wisconsin for the lake’s pollution problems, but his own city is a major culprit. Go read all of Michael Hawthorne’s story. He’s a great environmental reporter and he’s done it again.
Government energy policy needs a reset at the state and national levels. Heavily subsidized efforts to harness the power of the sun, wind and atom have achieved less than anticipated. The pressure’s on to scale back the huge government investment in developing a sustainable, environmentally friendly future.
Because, you know, no government subsidies are ever needed for the oil industry. Funny, but I don’t seem to recall any multi-national military task force being deployed to prevent solar or wind power prices from skyrocketing (um, I mean, for humanitarian reasons to protect the revolting citizenry in a major solar/wind generating country). And, as we all know, the oil industry receives no other federal assistance, ever. Apparently, wars and gigantic tax breaks are free.
What an ill-timed editorial that was.
* The Trib’s editorial was ostensibly about supporting Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto of the Leucadia coal gasification project in Chicago. It probably wasn’t a well-drafted bill. Indiana has approved a similar plant without much controversy because the state’s leaders claim to have included more consumer protections. Indiana’s project also has fewer environmental safeguards. But this really bothered me…
Having earlier secured $10 million from Illinois to study construction costs, Leucadia is certain it can build the Rockport [Indiana] plant for $2.65 billion, Lubbers said.
Great. We just financed the Hoosiers’ construction study. And this is bogus and Quinn knows it…
After Quinn killed the projects in Illinois, following public protests, he told the Chicago Tribune that “our investments in clean coal must not come at the expense of consumers.”
Consumers are also taxpayers, governor. And if clean coal was cheap, they’d be doing it already. Somebody’s gotta pay if we want to keep using that stuff.
* Before you commence commenting, let’s try to avoid a big debate on the Libyan conflict. I used it as only the latest example of US military intervention in an oil-producing country. The specifics of this intervention should be left to other publications.
* Related…
* Utilities, advocates at odds over regulatory changes: A controversial bill that would change the way Illinois sets utility rates in order to create incentives for companies to upgrade their electric power and gas lines is still alive, its sponsor said, but changes are being negotiated. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, D-Orland Park, said he will use the upcoming one-week break in the General Assembly’s schedule to try to draft a compromise to House Bill 14 that will allow lawmakers to consider the bill in early April… “We’ve seen those changes. They make something horrible less horrible, (but) the attorney general still objects,” said Paul Gaynor, chief of the public interest division for Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
* Exelon faces regulatory fallout after Japanese nuclear disaster: “These nuclear plants were believed to have operating lives of about 40 years,” says Howard Learner, executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center in Chicago and a frequent Exelon critic. “Exelon has run the plants really hard. . . .It is wise and prudent to press the pause button” on the expansion plans.
* Worth the risk? Japan disaster could change opinions
* I neglected to do a post celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. Not sure why. So, this is for mo chairde…
I go home to my parents, confess what I’ve done
And I ask them to pardon their prodigal son
And when they’ve caressed me as oft times before
I never will play the wild rover no more
* Congresscritter Jan Schakowsky is jumping into the recall fray in Wisconsin. From a letter to supporters…
This Saturday, I hope you can join me for a day of canvassing in Wisconsin! I’ll be leading a contingent from the 9th District to canvass to recall Scott Walker’s allies in the WI State Senate. We’ve all been inspired by watching the working people of Wisconsin stand up for their rights. Let’s lend them a hand and help recall those seeking to roll back our civil rights. I hope you can join us!
Eight GOP Senators have been targeted for recall.
* Meanwhile, over in Indiana, the Republicans are upping the pressure on House Democrats who fled to Illinois…
House Republicans plan to increase the fine for unexcused absences from $250 to $350 a day. And the House Speaker hopes to garnish the wages from House members’ private sector jobs to collect the fines.
No comments because I’m about to close them anyway.
* Roundup…
* Judge temporarily blocks Wisconsin anti-union law
* Ind. Democrats stay away, fighting labor bill: As it stands now, public works projects in Indiana are subject to “project labor agreements” (PLA’s), which favor hiring union workers over non-union workers. Democrats want to keep it that way, but a Republican bill aims to do away with PLA’s.
* Republicans in Ind. Legislature say they’ll work to move bills ahead without House Democrats
* Indiana Republicans fear boycott by Democratic legislators could spread to other states
* $180 million would be less than the appraised value for the Thomson prison, so I’m not sure the facility can be sold, but I guess beggers can’t be choosers…
The Obama White House is being asked by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn to provide a letter with a guarantee that detainees at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would not be sent to a nearly vacant state-owned prison in Thomson, Ill. the federal government wants to buy.
The letter is intended to address objections raised by Republicans, including Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), that detainees would end up in the northwest Illinois maximum security facility–even though the Obama White House has backed down from the plan. Republicans are worried there is no promise the matter of transfers would not come up in the future. […]
Quinn said that Kirk brought up at the delegation meeting the need for a guarantee, in writing -barring detainees from Thomson. Quinn said the federal government and the State of Illinois were “very close on price” for the facility, with the tab at about $180 million. Of that, the state would use $60 million to pay off debt to build Thomson and put the rest of the money for capital needs.
That’s $40 million more that the state paid to build it. It was appraised far higher…
Last year, a spokesman for Quinn, Grant Klinzman, said the average of three appraisals of the Thomson prison put its value at just under $220 million.
Mica Matsoff, a Quinn spokeswoman, was asked Thursday after the governor spoke if the state could sell the prison below its appraised value. She did not answer the question directly, saying only: “We are continuing to work with the federal government to determine and evaluate our options on moving forward. Our goal remains selling Thomson Correctional Center to the federal government at a fair price to the state as soon as possible.”
Quinn said: “We are going to seek from the General Assembly higher fees,” from Exelon “to make sure that our Emergency Management Agency has everything it needs to do its safety review job.”
Illinois already conducts its own independent safety inspections — in addition to federal government inspections — but Quinn said “from the moment” he heard about the Japanese nuclear crisis, he wanted to review Illinois readiness. The governor said the Illinois General Assembly is considering a 2 percent increase for inspections but he may want more. The base flat fee Exelon has been paying — about $18 million — has not been increased in more than eight years, Quinn said.
* Gov. Quinn goes to D.C. with words of warning: The governor was particularly worried about potential cuts to Illinois’ scientific research facilities, such as Fermilab and Argonne National Laboratory. Such cuts could cause the state to lose its leading scientists, as well as the potential to advance on technology that would make Illinois the electric vehicle capital of the nation.
The head of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce says he wants to make sure video poker machines are installed around Illinois.
The state approved an expansion of video poker to help pay for $31 billion worth of construction projects. But a lawsuit has held up those plans.
Jerry Roper, with the Chamber of Commerce, said video poker machines are needed to pay for the construction plans.
“The infrastructure bill, which had attached to it, the video poker, so we’d like to see that going forward,” Roper said Thursday. “I think you’re seeing more and more cities and countries pushing the video poker so I think it’s worth the try.”
John Cullerton, president of the Illinois Senate, surprised fans and foes of video gambling this week. He proposed repeal of lawmakers’ wrong-headed decision in 2009 to legalize this predatory pastime — a proven way for cash-hungry governments to separate poor and working-class families from their scarce resources.
We appreciate that Cullerton’s proposal to kill legal video gambling before it begins is part of his push to raise the state cigarette tax by $1 a pack. But whatever his conditions, Cullerton now has proposed the death of video gambling. He owns this mission, and we’ll do what we can to further it. The Tribune news story about his proposal to kill video gambling identified Cullerton as a “powerful Chicago Democrat.” We trust he’ll use that power to get this important job done.
* Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel is on record opposing video gaming in his city. And Gov. Pat Quinn is open to dumping it…
Quinn, speaking to reporters from seven Illinois print news outlets, was asked about Cullerton’s move. Quinn noted that he signed a law allowing video gambling as part of a deal with Republicans to fund a capital bill. Quinn said he was never “fond” of allowing video gambling.
“I told the Republican leaders I have no love for video gambling,” Quinn said. Quinn said a higher cigarette tax was a “better way” to go than legalized video gaming.
While we do get why Cullerton might want to write off the video gambling element funding the capital plan - Chicago still won’t permit it, at least 60 municipalities have opted out already - doing so at this late date is ill-advised. If nothing else, the Land of Lincoln has been working on rules governing its legality since the measure passed. The oversight agency has 50 new people on the payroll being trained to police these joints, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. It would be just like this state to say, “Oops, never mind,” after expending so much in the way of time and resources in beginning to implement it, but perhaps the Legislature should go off character, for once. (We might add that these machines already operate in many a tavern with under-the-table payouts; this was a way for Illinois to get a piece of the action without encouraging new gambling.)
“People have relied on our representations that we did a deal, the governor signed it and they invested money in this state,” said Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont. “Here we are again, yanking the rug out from under people.”
State Sen. Kyle McCarter, R-Lebanon, said it would be wrong to reverse course on video gambling because people have already began to make investments in the business.
* The Question: Keep going with legalized video poker or dump it?
…Adding… Somebody on the opposing side was clearly Freeping our poll late in the day, so it’s been deleted. Happy now, morons?
* I’d seen a couple of stories about it, but I hadn’t really checked out the Illinois Republican Party’s new “Illinois Madness” bracket contest to pick the biggest tax and spend Democrats in the state. From the IL GOP…
Illinois is full of “Tax & Spend” Democrats. But who is the biggest Tax & Spend Illinois Democrat? Pat Quinn? Mike Madigan? John Cullerton? Barack Obama? Or someone else? Welcome to the 2011 Illinois Madness Tournament to pick the biggest “Tax & Spend” Illinois Democrat. Like the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament, “March Madness,” Illinois Madness features a bracket of 63 Illinois Democrats from every region of the State and a special play-in round between “Flee Party” Wisconsin and Indiana Democrats. Winners of each round are determined by online voting that will coincide with the ending dates of each round of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament. Voters are asked to select the winner of each match based on their answer to the following question: “Which Democrats have done the most to harm Illinois taxpayers?”
Some of these first-round matches are impossible to figure. State Rep. Chuck Jefferson vs. state Rep. Keith Farnham? Cook County Clerk David Orr vs. St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern? Those are even more obscure than the Arkansas-Little Rock/Texas-San Antonio play-in game. These people are unknown even to their constituents. Not even Capitol Fax could dope these out.
That Jefferson vs. Farnham thing is pretty easy. Jefferson voted for the income tax hike, Farnham voted against it. Jefferson advances. Orr’s budget is being cut more than Kern’s, so Kern advances.
In the Spend, Spend, Spend Region, State Senate President John Cullerton is the favorite. Cullerton is a rookie in the leadership. He’s not capable of raising taxes as high as Quinn or Madigan.
Cullerton’s Senate passed bill containing an income tax hike and a sales tax on services two years ago. The Senate also passed a cigarette tax hike. None of those bills have been able to pass the House. Also, the Senate set its revenue forecast $1 billion higher than Madigan’s House. Cullerton would be the favorite there.
Welcome to the 2011 Republican Invitational Tournament, the 32-team field filled out by those not invited to the Big Dance.
We start out in the George Ryan Regional.
Here are the match ups from top to bottom.
No. 1 seed Judy Topinka takes on play-in game winner, which pits the Illinois Policy Institute against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
No. 4 Mark Beaubien vs. No. 5 seed Skip Saviano
No. 3 seed Christine Radogno vs. No. 6 seed John Shimkus
No. 2 seed Mark Kirk vs. No. 7 seed Pat Brady
Moving on to the Dan Duffy Red Light Regional
No. 1 seed Adam Andrzejewski vs. No 8 seed John O. Jones
No. 4 seed Sam McCann vs. No. 5 seed Kyle McCarter
No. 3 seed Dale Righter vs. No. 6 seed Dan Duffy
No. 2 seed Chris Lauzen vs. No. 7 seed Shane Cultra
In the Where’s Jim Edgar? Regional
No. 1 seed Bill Brady vs. No. 8 Jason Plummer
No. 4 seed Jim Oberweis vs. No. 5 seed Carole Pankau
No. 3 seed Steve Rauschenberger vs. No. 6 seed Jim Ryan
No. 2 seed Kirk Dillard vs. No. 7 seed Dan Proft
and finally, in the Alan Keyes Regional …
No. 1 seed Dan Rutherford vs. No. 8 Ron Stephens
No. 4 seed vs. Bob Schillerstrom vs. No. 5 seed Peter Roskam
No. 3 seed Dan Cronin vs. No. 6 seed Tim Johnson
No. 2 seed Tom Cross vs. No. 7 seed Chapin Rose
* Former Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner has penned an op-ed for the State Journal-Register on pension reform that is completely devoid of any specifics whatsoever. Instead, he spends most of his time dismissing Eric Madiar, the chief legal counsel to Senate President John Cullerton who penned a well-researched 76-page report on why it would be unconstitutionally illegal for the state to reduce pension benefits for current public workers. Most of Fahner’s piece is rhetoric, and here’s the heart of his argument…
It is our opinion, legally and politically, that it is possible to amend the retirement benefits for current public employees on a prospective basis that honors what already has been earned while reducing future costs. What is not an option is for Madiar and those he represents to be in denial and say there is simply nothing the legislature can do to resolve the state’s financial crisis. The legislature certainly can address this issue and, more importantly, they must address it for the good of everyone in Illinois. It is a great excuse for the faint of heart to say they would do something about the state’s financial crisis — but they could not vote for something constitutionally barred.
They have stolen from our pension system and owe it billions of dollars. they need to pay back the state pension system.
As I’ve made abundantly clear, I abhor the escalating national attacks on teachers and other public employees as ignorant and needlessly vengeful nonsense. A frightened, aging, underwater middle class is at war with a subset of itself in the wake of a global economic meltdown caused by a handful of fantastically corrupt financial institutions. The widespread fear and loathing is wholly understandable. The target of that scary ire isn’t.
But comments like the one posted above drive me more than a little crazy.
* It’s a given that the General Assembly and the governor have shorted the pension systems almost since the systems were created. From the Senate Democratic pension funding analysis…
At the time of the [1970 Illinois Constitutional] Convention… The five State pension systems had an aggregate funding ratio of 41.8%… the five systems currently have a combined funding ratio of 39%.
The new Constitution was supposed to remedy this problem by sternly warning legislators and governors that they couldn’t both over-promise and underfund. They did it anyway.
But while there’s no disputing that the funds were shorted, the inflammatory rhetoric about “theft” is just that: Inflammatory rhetoric.
Do you think they just pocketed all those billions? C’mon. The reality is that almost all that diverted pension money went where almost all state government money almost always goes: Education, health care and public safety
* But aside from the gross and willful historical ignorance, this constant selfish refrain about past grievances completely ignores the problem of what we need to do now. Frankly, their approach is downright childish. “Just pay what you promised!” they scream, as if there’s some magic money pot that’s been deliberately hidden by the powers that be, which, if found, would instantly solve all problems without any sort of pain.
I got a news flash for you people: That magic money pot doesn’t exist.
* This pervasive and churlish attitude also completely ignores what happened in January. Just about every dime from January’s personal income tax increase will be spent next fiscal year on pensions and pension debt service. (By FY 2014, every dime of the personal and corporate tax hikes will be eaten up by pensions and pension debt service, plus some.)
In other words, every working person in Illinois has been ordered to hand over the equivalent of a week’s pay so that the state can satisfy its pension obligations next year. But attempts to deal with this painful, overwhelming burden are met with a firewall of self-centered hostility.
What would you have the state do? Should school funding be slashed, grandmas kicked out of nursing homes and hospital doors locked just so we can make pension payments? Or perhaps we should enact yet another income tax hike?
* Please, spare us the grotesque fits of whining and crying. Quit petulantly stomping your feet, grow up and get in the game. The taxpayers of Illinois have just been forced into a major concession in this decades-long battle. It’s your turn now. Participate.
A bill that would have abolished the 50 percent tuition waivers that go to the children of public university employees is on hold after opponents included what the sponsor called “a poison pill.”
Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, decided to avoid a full Senate Executive Committee vote on the legislation (SB 1318) Wednesday evening after committee members voted down an amendment that would have allowed current employees to continue to enjoy the benefit.
But the committee then voted to adopt a second Radogno-requested amendment to ban the long-controversial General Assembly scholarships.
The result left Radogno with a bill guaranteed to get plenty of “no” votes; she opted not to call it for a vote in committee.
“The way they would not allow the amendment on the bill that would make it prospective, I don’t think it’s fair to pull the rug out from people who were counting on it,” she said after the committee meeting. “But as a policy, going forward, these (employee tuition) waivers don’t make sense. Wisconsin doesn’t offer them. Iowa doesn’t offer them. Only four states even offer them in statute.”
So, it’s not fair to “pull the rug out from people” when it comes to tuition waivers, but it’s A-OK to do that with pension benefits for current government employees? The Senate Republican budget proposal wants to save $1.35 billion by doing just that. Odd.
