* 1:05 pm - The leaders meeting is over. We’ll post videos of all the post-game action. Here’s Senate President Cullerton, who left first and announced, as expected, that the special session will start next Tuesday.
Cullerton talked about making some “minor changes” to the capital bill next week. He also responded to Senate GOP Leader Radogno’s claim that the budget crisis is being “manufactured”…
...Adding… Cullerton claims at the end of the video that the Republicans have yet to offer any specific budget cuts.
* 1:32 pm - Speaker Madigan talks about the income tax increase. “There are not 60 Democrats” who would be willing to support an income tax increase.
Madigan also takes a question about whether he’s trying to embarrass Gov. Quinn to help his daughter’s gubernatorial campaign and whether the crisis helps Lisa Madigan and hurts the governor…
The governor says at the end of the above video that he may issue a special session proclamation, but it may not be necessary.
* 1:35 pm - The two Republican leaders speak to reporters…
…Adding… Oops. I missed Part 1 of the GOP leaders…
* And here’s Gov. Quinn…
* 1:52 pm - You knew this had to happen sooner or later. How Daley can justify this promised subsidy while he’s laying off city workers and refusing to bargain in good faith with the police union is beyond me, but whatever…
In a major change of position, Mayor Richard Daley told the Tribune Wednesday he will sign the standard Olympic host city contract, which would give the city full financial responsibility for mounting the 2016 Summer Games.
The city had been seeking exceptions to the contract because its bid is backed only by limited financial guarantees. This has been an Achilles’ heel for the bid because the other three finalists — Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo — are offering full government guarantees.
“We are going to sign it as is,” Daley said after Chicago’s presentation to the International Olympic Committee members Wednesday morning.
* 1:55 pm - The Tribune report on the leaders meeting…
Lawmakers will return to Springfield next week, but don’t expect them to deal with the state budget shortfall.
Instead, they’ll be back at the Capitol to fix some paperwork problems involving a massive public works plan.
Gov. Pat Quinn met for two hours today with Democratic and Republican leaders for two hours at his Chicago office, but once again failed to agree on an income tax increase. Quinn said that’s necessary to prevent widespread cuts to social service programs and mass layoffs.
They emerged talking about the need to clean up the construction program legislation, but even that isn’t a done deal. Quinn said he thinks a construction plan should be linked to a budget resolution.
“I think God is punishing me to have a rain delay in this [place],” Guillen cracked.
This week, Guillen made headlines when he said the Cubs’ 95-year-old stadium made him want to puke. He held firm to his opinion Tuesday as rain fell on the field and in parts of the dugout.
“We don’t have a clubhouse; we have a closet upstairs,” Guillen said. “If somebody has to use the bathroom during the game, we’ve got to take a taxi all the way out there. If we want to hit, we’ve got to go to the rats [below the right-field bleachers].
* The Question: Should the rat-infested, decrepit North Side minor league stadium be demolished? Explain.
* The minority party is supposed to whack the majority every chance they get. But it’s also imperative that they be kept honest. And while I wholeheartedly agree that redistricting reform is an absolute must, this op-ed by House GOP Leader Tom Cross and Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno is not a very logical argument…
For three years in a row, the majority party in the state Legislature has failed in its most basic duty, which is to pass a balanced budget without spending additional taxpayer money in overtime sessions. Rod Blagojevich is gone, but his party still can’t accomplish this core responsibility. […]
The poison at the core is a system in which legislative districts have been gerrymandered to fix election results and insulate lawmakers from voters. When politicians get to pick their voters, instead of the voters picking their representatives, there is no accountability. And, without accountability, there is no pressure to fix the problems the state faces.
As we work toward a budget solution, putting an initiative on the November 2010 ballot to end gerrymandering must be a part of the discussions. Illinois needs an independent party to draw legislative district maps — not an antiquated coin-flip system — because it is clear nothing will change so long as politicians draw their own districts.
It’s illogical because a big reason there was no income tax increase during the spring session was that lots of House Democrats were scared to death of their voters, even in Cook County.
But the two leaders stuck to their message this morning, with both pushing for reforms and Leader Radogno claiming that the budget crisis was being “manufactured”…
The deficit is all too real. So I’m not sure what’s being “manufactured.”
* Senate President Cullerton talked about the Republicans, budget cuts and their proposed constitutional amendment on redistricting during a press conference earlier this morning. Watch it…
* The legislative leaders are meeting today in Chicago. We’ll have more on that later this morning or early in the afternoon…
Southland Sen. Christine Radogno (R-Lemont), minority leader for the chamber, said the governor has not met Republican demands for pension and Medicaid reforms to the governmental process before negotiating a final budget.
“None of that has occurred,” she said Tuesday.
There is a possibility the Legislature could be called to Springfield to implement a temporary budget for human services, she said, to avoid these drastic cuts.
“This is an appalling shakedown of the human service providers and constituents,” Radogno said of Quinn’s negotiating tactics. “Threatening them until they feel they have no choice but a tax increase. It’s just unconscionable in my view.”
Keep in mind that serious pension reforms have been on the table since Gov. Quinn’s budget address, and the GOP balked.
…(A)ny realistic look at this situation would indicate we can’t cut our way entirely out of our immediate problem, at least not without abandoning too many of the people state government is supposed to help.
Those are the folks who benefit from the state’s social service programs: women in domestic-violence shelters, people in drug and alcohol rehab, single mothers receiving child-care assistance so they can work, children in foster care and those who care for them, plus many more.
Some will suspect these type programs have been singled out to get sympathy, but the fact is that once you pay for the stuff that the state is pretty much legally obligated to do, this is the area you have left. That’s what state government does. You probably don’t want them turning loose the prisoners or cutting funding to schools.
That’s mostly true. And it’s tough to cut education much more this year anyway because of the federal stimulus rules. Still…
State education leaders thought they’d submitted a lean budget proposal to the General Assembly earlier this year, but now it looks like they’ll have to cut closer to the bone.
Members of the Illinois State Board of Education will talk today about ways to slice roughly $400 million from the proposed education budget. The new cuts, which would not affect general state aid or mandated services like special education, were made necessary by the state budget lawmakers approved last month, officials say.
The necessary cuts amount to roughly 50 percent of nonmandated programming expenses.
* But there are more problems ahead. Our quote of the day goes to Sen. Donne Trotter…
“The former lieutenant governor is used to throwing rocks, he’s not used to catching them.”
* The threatened cuts certainly look grim. For instance…
Because of its budget woes, the state of Illinois will no longer pay for funerals for the indigent.
The president of a Chicago nonprofit agency had a question Tuesday for Gov. Quinn’s administration: Where should he take all the people with disabilities and mental illness who will lose their homes if the state budget is slashed?
“We will not be accused of putting them in the street,” warned Allan Bergman, CEO of the Anixter Center, which could see its state funding cut by a third — about $7 million.
Bergman got no answer.
Drug treatment centers for single mothers and their children, DCFS programs, employee layoffs, etc. But is the pressure working? Not yet…
State Rep. Pat Verschoore, D-Milan, for example, was among 42 Democrats who backed the income tax when it fell short of the 60 votes it needed for passage in the House.
He said concerns being raised by social service agencies could help pressure Republican lawmakers to vote for a hike.
“I know I’m not the only one who is receiving calls,” Verschoore said. “Maybe it will help sway people.”
“I think that’s an unlikely scenario,” answered state Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon.
Rep. Raymond Poe, R-Springfield, said about 60 AFSCME members had come to his office Tuesday to press for a tax hike. The Service Employees International Union, which represents many people employed through local service agencies, and nine officials with local service providers also came by to lobby, Poe said.
“I told every one of them I had an open mind,” he said. “If we (Republicans) are part of negotiations, I will keep an open mind.”
He stopped short, though, of promising to support a tax increase. Poe previously had said he would stick with the House Republican caucus that wants budget “reforms” before supporting higher taxes. Those include things like changes to pension benefits and bringing managed-care programs to Medicaid.
State Sen. David Luechtefeld, R-Okawville said there is an element of fear mongering on the part of the Governor and that politics are undoubtedly at play between Quinn and House Speaker Mike Madigan. That said, Luechtefeld conceded that the threats could become a reality and that he has no expectations on when a more complete budget might be passed, if at all.
“It (these cuts) could take effect,” he said. “The state is in terrible shape, and there’s just an awful lot of people caught in this and that’s a shame.”
Crestwood residents have to live with the knowledge that their officials allowed them to unwittingly consume contaminated well water for more than 20 years. They shouldn’t have to live with Stranczek running their town. He should resign.
The brother of one of Mayor Daley’s closest friends in politics has quit the $116,000-a-year CTA job created just for him, paving the way for Robert Degnan to simultaneously collect two government pensions.
In 2002, Degnan retired as the city’s $115,260-a-year Fleet Management commissioner to accept a $95,000-a-year job at the CTA. By jumping through an early retirement window, Degnan got a lump-sum bonus of 10 percent of his annual city salary. He was also free to collect both a city pension and a CTA paycheck.
His May 31 retirement from the CTA means Degnan can now collect two local government pensions. His annual retirement check from the city amounts to roughly $92,208 or 80 percent of Degnan’s highest city salary. After just seven years on the CTA job, he’ll collect a $10,997-a-year CTA pension.
Cook County commissioners issued a no-confidence vote today against a suburban education official who a state auditor found repeatedly used a government credit card for personal expenses and approved questionable payments to relatives on his payroll.
The County Board’s unanimous vote comes in the wake of a state audit, first reported by the Sun-Times last week, that focused on Regional Supt. Charles A. Flowers and his state-funded office, which has amassed a nearly $1 million deficit.
“This is an example of flagrant corruption at its most heightened,” said Commissioner Liz Doody Gorman, a Republican from Orland Park. She introduced the no-confidence resolution and pressed — as the state’s top auditor has — for a criminal probe.
Predictably, a protest to counter the event is being planned. Chicago Copwatch, a watchdog group, is organizing a march to the FOP hall the same night after a rally at Union Park at Ashland Avenue and Lake Street.
* This isn’t news to subscribers, but do you remember the “mini” capital bill approved in early April? As subscribers have known for many days now, it’s on hold….
A small version of the [capital] plan was approved in early spring in order to get road projects going for the summer. But those have stalled as well.
Illinois Department of Transportation spokeswoman Paris Ervin said new projects can’t get started until a full state spending plan is approved.
That $3 billion “jump start” capital bill was designed to get people working as soon as possible with “shovel ready” projects until the main capital bill was passed. Well, the main capital bill was passed, but it hasn’t been signed into law yet because we have no state budget for next fiscal year. And because we have no state budget, there’s no appropriating authority for the “mini” capital projects, either.
I know some of y’all are probably proud of your company. Heck, I’m proud of my company. Then again, my company isn’t under two federal investigations, my company didn’t just file for bankruptcy, my company never used its editorial powers to browbeat politicians into voting to allow lights at my decrepit, company-owned ballpark, my company never used all its powers to snag a riverboat casino, my company never “put on hiatus” one of the better state politics radio shows in recent memory, my company never endorsed George Ryan for governor and I, as company owner, have never been referred to as “the ultimate vulture.” At least not to my face.
In an escalating public battle between two landmark institutions, the Chicago Tribune filed a state lawsuit this morning against the University of Illinois
Sheesh.
* Dear Jim Tobin,
What’s with your crusade against the Illinois State Police? Did you get a lot of tickets or something? No offense. Just asking…
“I think they should lay off all the state troopers. I think they’re a total waste of taxpayer money,” [Jim Tobin, the president of National Taxpayers United of Illinois] said. “We have too many cops and state police have proven time and time again they’re glorified Keystone Kops. We won’t miss them one bit.”
…As an addendum, why would any reporter quote this guy?
U.S. Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., who is under investigation by the Sangamon County state’s attorney for possible perjury for his January testimony before the Illinois House impeachment committee, was at the Sangamon County Complex Monday.
There’s no official word that Burris was at the building as part of that investigation, though in a recent visit to Springfield, Burris said he was anxious to speak with State’s Attorney John Schmidt.
The Obama administration has turned back pleas for emergency aid from one of the biggest remaining threats to the economy — the state of California.
Top state officials have gone hat in hand to the administration, armed with dire warnings of a fast-approaching “fiscal meltdown” caused by a budget shortfall. Concern has grown inside the White House in recent weeks as California’s fiscal condition has worsened, leading to high-level administration meetings. But federal officials are worried that a bailout of California would set off a cascade of demands from other states.
But, heck, man, your home state needs you now. We’re in seriously deep doo-doo here. Plus, did this dance with Pat Quinn mean nothing to you all those years ago?
* Comptroller Dan Hynes is not running for reelection. He may run for attorney general if Lisa Madigan moves up, or he may run for governor is LMadigan stays put. But you can probably expect this issue to haunt him…
In the strongest language yet, funeral homes that have lost millions of dollars from a pre-need funeral trust fund are blaming Illinois regulators charged with keeping money safe.
Furthermore, funeral home directors allege, the state comptroller’s office, which regulates the pre-need funeral industry, kept the burgeoning financial crisis under wraps. By the time the truth emerged, it was too late to stave off losses that might now exceed $100 million, say funeral directors who are suing the Illinois Funeral Directors Association and others.
“Even state regulators who took on the responsibility for monitoring the pre-need trust failed to protect plaintiffs and other pre-need trust depositors,” funeral directors say in court documents filed Friday. “Indeed, when questioned by funeral directors on why the issue was not addressed in 2001, when the (Illinois Office of the Comptroller), but not the funeral directors, knew of a budding deficit, the (comptroller’s) response was that the deficit was ‘pennies on the dollar,’ as if that excused (the comptroller) from doing anything about it.” […]
“I’m not going to talk to you, I think that’s pretty clear,” Peg Roth, assistant comptroller, told a reporter after a June 4 meeting with funeral directors upset about the fund’s financial prospects. Roth told a reporter to ask the department’s spokeswoman what the comptroller’s office did about the troubled fund before 2006. But spokeswoman Carol Knowles did not return a phone call.
Not only did the fund lose money, but it was started by Roland Burris when he was comptroller. Burris was a registered lobbyist for the funeral home people, although Hynes claims he had no direct contact with Burris once he found out who Burris worked for. Still, it’s a bad connection. Nothing connected to Burris will turn out well.
* Meanwhile, remember last week when we discussed the “shackling” of pregant Cook County prisoners while they were delivering their babies? Well, the SouthtownStar has a follow-up entitled: Shackled in labor: ‘Dehumanizing,’ ‘outrageous’ which includes this quote from an attorney who is filing a class action suit…
[Attorneys] said it is absurd that women in labor could be a security threat or flight risk.
“We think that’s nuts,” [Kenneth Flaxman] said. “And we think the courts will agree with us.”
But, last week, the Sheriff Dart’s office shared a few news stories with me about attempted escapes by women prisoners, including one who was pregnant…
JAIL GUARD SUSPENDED AFTER PRISONER ESCAPE Chicago Tribune June 13, 1997
A Cook County Department of Corrections officer was suspended without pay Thursday pending an administrative hearing for allegedly leaving a prisoner unattended Wednesday night at Mt. Sinai Hospital Medical Center.
The prisoner, Latanya Burks, 26, of the 1500 block of South Keeler Avenue, escaped during the officer’s absence after giving birth. Burks has since been caught and is being held on $5,000 bond at Cermak Hospital…..
HOSPITALIZED INMATE DIES IN WINDOW FALL Chicago Tribune May 10, 1998
Joyce Nathan, 39, a Cook County Jail inmate awaiting trial on a murder charge, died Saturday afternoon after falling or jumping from a fourth-floor window at Cook County Hospital.
Nathan was in the jail’s unit in the hospital recovering from stomach surgery performed on Thursday, said Bill Cunningham, a Cook County Sheriff’s spokesman.
Guards stationed outside the ward saw Nathan going out the window, and they believe she was trying to escape rather than commit suicide, Cunningham said, though he declined to say what evidence led to that assumption. He could not say whether windows on the ward were locked, but he said that was being looked into.
HEADLINE: Sheriff nabs suspect who fled hospital
BYLINE: Frank Main and Stefano Esposito, The Chicago Sun-Times
Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan personally nabbed a drug suspect Friday after the hospitalized woman slipped past one of his guards — who was cited earlier in the day for leaving her unattended.
Lawanda Warren, 40, of University Park, escaped about 10 a.m. from Loretto Hospital on the West Side. The escape gave more ammunition to critics of Sheahan after a recent spate of escapes from the jail.
Warren had been arrested Tuesday by Chicago Police for alleged heroin possession and was admitted to the hospital after she complained of chest pains. She had not yet been booked into the jail.
* One of the problems with the complicated federal campaign finance regulatory system is it’s a federal regulatory system. Relatively small mistakes can make honest people look like criminals or hapless fools. Still, there’s really no excuse for this…
The Federal Election Commission is reviewing a complaint against the campaign of Democratic 10th Congressional District candidate Michael Bond, who currently serves Illinois’ 31st senate district.
According to Lake County Republican Chairman Dan Venturi, who filed the complaint against Bond with the FEC, Bond has declared himself a congressional candidate and expended money on behalf of his candidacy — without timely filing the proper paperwork and disclosures (due 15 days after declaring one’s candidacy). Venturi notes that, as reported by Team America some time ago, Bond has reserved a website address and several draft pages of the site can be accessed (although not by design, it appears).
In addition, it is beyond question that Bond officially declared himself a candidate weeks ago (April 29), as evidenced by a press release and statements to the media. According to Venturi, Bond’s campaign could be subject to a fine for failure to properly and timely file his disclosures.
The above story is from a highly partisan GOP blog, so keep that in mind, please. But Bond did declare his candidacy back in April, so the clock apparently started ticking then…
“After speaking with people in our communities, listening to their ideas and hearing their concerns, I’ve decided to run for Congress.”
If you’re gonna get in the arena, you have to be prepared, and part of that preparation is hiring experienced lawyers who can help you through the labyrinth of federal regulations.
In fact, if you don’t spend $5,000 and run you don’t have to file at all. Obviously you aren’t going to win, but there are minor candidates who often don’t file for this very reason.
If you haven’t raised $5,000 yet, you don’t have to file. When you reach that threshold you have 15 days to file from that date. There is nothing in the complaint that alleges Bond raised more than $5,000 before May 16, 2009 so the Lake County Republican Chairman Dan Venturi is wasting FEC time and money with nothing other than a harassment technique while the FEC can barely keep up with legit complaints.
As President Obama spoke with doctors gathered Monday for the American Medical Association’s annual meeting in Chicago, U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Highland Park) spoke with reporters about legislation he has introduced that would assure patients can keep their current doctor. […]
Kirk’s “Medical Rights Act” restricts the government from interfering with any decision and individual makes with his or her doctor.
Illinois Republicans are demanding that the state use more managed care for Medicaid, which would deprive people of choosing their own physicians and allow somebody other than their doctors to make decisions for them, but Kirk is apparently going the opposite direction.
Also, according to a recent National Journal article, Kirk’s district doesn’t appear on either Democratic or Republican “top tier” lists, which leads Swing State Project to speculate…
…maybe they aren’t confident about Mark Kirk vacating IL-10?
* 9:35 am - The governor’s office is planning a budget briefing this morning at 10:30. You can listen live by clicking here. If that link doesn’t work for some reason, click here and search around. [There’s some mainstream jazz playing on that link at the moment.]
For those who can, live-blogging in comments would be a great help to many. Thanks.
There’s also a rally planned for 11:30 this morning at the Thompson Center to oppose the upcoming budget cuts.
* 10:23 am - This press release from the Child Care Association of Illinois shows how Gov. Quinn can’t catch an even break…
Nearly 25 Chicago-area foster parents will appear [Thursday at 12:30] at a press conference in the James R. Thompson Center to denounce Governor Pat Quinn’s budget reduction by 50% of expense reimbursements and the elimination of foster child support services to the state’s 9,000 foster parents. The foster parents will implore the legislature to find the money to reverse the cuts.
Um, the General Assembly passed the budget without the governor’s input, yet almost everybody refers to it as “Quinn’s budget.” It’s not. He’s against it.
*** UPDATE - 12:12 PM *** Quinn Chief of Staff Jerry Stermer is going over the budget cuts again. Click here to listen to his first briefing.
Also, some of you have asked where to find the handout that’s being passed around at the meeting. It’s now online. Click here. [Fixed link. The state site no longer has the full document, so I’m hosting it now.]
Gov. Pat Quinn said [yesterday] he wants state lawmakers to return to Springfield next week to fix a makeshift budget that will mean big spending cuts for many social services.
Quinn has been warning for days that he will have to make dramatic cuts in services for the elderly, disabled and children unless lawmakers approve a major income tax increase. Democratic lawmakers sought to put off that politically sensitive move last month, choosing to partially fund the budget and leave the statehouse.
The Democratic governor stopped short of ordering the legislature into special session–a highly unpopular but frequent move during the Rod Blagojevich years. But he said he will be blunt with legislative leaders when he meets with them Wednesday in Chicago.
Quinn’s office said lawmakers left a hole of $9.2 billion. That amounts to nearly one-third of all the money that’s directly under state government’s control and not subject to federal restrictions. The current budget totals $67 billion, according to a report from the General Assembly, but most of that is federal money the state doesn’t really control or spending authority for long-term construction projects.
Legislators voted to protect education money, further limiting how the deficit could be closed.
Stermer said the “half-baked partial budget” would require that most cuts come from money the state pays to local organizations.
That’s far higher than the $7 billion they were talking about earlier. I didn’t get a briefing yesterday like the AP did, or I’d have asked what exactly caused the deficit to jump a full $2.2 billion. The most I’d heard so far was $1.7 billion because the state was unable to capture federal Medicaid matches.
* I’ve been telling subscribers about this for weeks…
More than 10,000 state employees face layoffs unless the state can find a way to close its budget deficit by cutting costs in other ways and raising taxes.
Officials with Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration will meet with state employee union officials today in Springfield to discuss alternatives that could reduce the number of potential layoffs.
Those alternatives include unpaid furlough days, a wage freeze or even a wage reduction.
But the administration acknowledged Monday that even with cost-cutting measures and a tax hike, some layoffs may still be necessary.
* There’s still a lot of head in the sand activity out there…
For Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, the latest pronouncement from the governor is political gamesmanship. “Last week it was they were going to cut all human service providers by 50 percent, but (the human service providers) didn’t know that. This week it is laying off thousands of employees. ‘It’s like ‘Stop scaring our families, governor.’”
Rep. Jim Sacia, R-Pecatonica, said Quinn is being “totally disingenuous” with his job-cuts announcement.
Sen. Brad Burzynski, R-Clare, agrees: “I simply don’t believe that it would be a reality.”
Even AFSCME knows the budget passed by the GA will force nearly 10,000 layoffs, so I’m not sure where those legislators are getting their “reality” from.
But how long legislators will be willing to remain in Springfield is uncertain because several have been invited on a junket to Turkey the final week of June. […]
House Speaker Michael Madigan was among those invited to go on the Turkey trip, but an aide now says he will skip the trip if necessary.
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown refused to identify the sponsor of the trip, telling the Sun-Times to ask the governor’s office.
“I’d call whoever told you about it and ask those questions because I don’t have that information,” Brown said. “I’m told Quinn was telling people that story. I’d call them back and get the rest of the details.”
Always fun.
* And the Illinois Policy Institute has an op-ed today in which it claims it found at least $3.9 billion in budgetary savings. But some are impossible without reopening the union contract…
A 10 percent temporary pay cut for state employees will save $500 million.
Some are politically untenable, like cutting aid to local governments (read: Chicago)…
The state sends 10 percent of income tax receipts it collects back to local governments, a total of $1.2 billion of the $53 billion local governments spend (2.2 percent).
Some may be overstated…
In addition to our recommendations, we support many of the Taxpayer Action Board’s recommendations. For our use here, we focused on the low range in the several spending categories for a total of $419 million
Steve Schnorf, remember, said in his TAB dissent that he’d be surprised to find $200 million in savings next fiscal year.
And some may be duplicative…
Of course, some modest double counting may occur. For example, a 10 percent reduction in some government agencies may include wages, which are also included in the 10 percent pay reduction for employees.
Other than that, even implementing all those cuts would still leave a gigantic budget hole.
* Ill. American seeking another bump to water bills
The private utility company, which serves Homer Glen and Orland Hills, quietly filed a request in April to implement a “qualified infrastructure plant” surcharge rider, which would tack a surcharge of up to 5 percent on customers’ bills. That money would be used to pay for repairs to existing infrastructure, said Kevin Hillen, operations manager of field services for Illinois American’s Chicago Metro District.
He and other Illinois employers are about to be subjected July 1 to the second of three annual minimum wage hikes. On July 1, 2010, another scheduled 25-cent increase will push up the state’s minimum wage to $8.25 an hour.
Although he did not increase his prices after last year’s wage increase, Wortham said he will have to do it this time around.
“It affected my bottom line,” he said. “This time, I will have to take a small increase. I may have to go up 10 percent across the board in product, but that may be lower than what other national pizza restaurants will have to do.”
The Illinois Department of Transportation says it’s awarded nearly two-thirds of the stimulus dollars it’s received, but minority contractors here in Chicago say they haven’t seen the money. Which got us wondering who the stimulus money is working for, and how it’s working. WBEZ’s Adriene Hill explains more about tracking the allocation of stimulus funds.
The Illinois Department of Transportation says it’s awarded nearly two-thirds of its stimulus money. But Chicago contractors don’t seem to be winning the work.
HANNIG: As far as who won the bids, that usually goes to the lowest bidder and we really can’t control anything beyond that.
HANNIG: There is no doubt that the construction companies are hungry and perhaps those outside of Chicago rely more on government jobs and so maybe they put in more bids around the state and lower bids.
He speculates maybe Chicago contractors have other opportunities. But many minority contractor groups around the city say they haven’t seen stimulus dollars and would love the work.
Politicians turned out to mark the sixth anniversary of a labor strike at a downtown Chicago hotel.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn was the keynote speaker at a rally in front of the Congress Plaza Hotel on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue.
The event also attracted Chicago aldermen, Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown and state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias (jeh-NOO’-lee-ehs), who is considering a U.S. Senate run.
Judge Sophia Hall ruled the Chicago Plan Commission illegally denied a zoning change for the hotel. Obeying Hall’s order of last week, the commission is scheduled to reconsider the proposal Thursday.
The hearing reopens an issue that originally pitted the hotel and Mayor Daley, who supported its zoning bid, against key aldermen and the political power of Unite Here Local 1, the hotel workers union.
The union Monday observed the six-year anniversary of its active strike against the Congress Plaza. Unite Here staged a noisy rally outside the hotel and brought in politicians and labor leaders.
Aldermen in attendance said they would stand firm and refuse any zoning change for the hotel. The City Council must act on any matter that clears the Plan Commission.
“We’re working to the ends that there will be no layoffs. … We may take a tough hit here — and we probably are at the end of the day. … [But], we’re under the impression that, if we do this package, they’ll rescind the 1,500 layoffs … and do none,” Gannon said.
“This is a time for organized labor to be principled, but [to] also have the ability to be flexible. … We need to do this as quickly as possible. The clock is ticking. Every day, the city is more and more in debt. … We want to do what we can do to save jobs, save families and save communities.”
Sources said union leaders have been asked to consider a painful menu that includes: reduced work-weeks or schedules; furlough days; unpaid holidays; pay cuts; delayed prevailing wage increases; comp time for overtime; increased health care contributions and reduced sick-time accrual.
But he revealed that labor is no longer holding out for a two-year, no-layoff guarantee that Daley has insisted he cannot give. Instead, a guarantee could restrict the duration of give-backs and affect such issues as pensions, health care and future privatization of city services, Gannon said.
“There’s got to be assurances that, 10 years from now, these jobs that our members have are still gonna be there for them,” he said.
Even if those guarantees can be hammered out, Gannon acknowledged that the concessions would be a tough sell.
“This is a tough ask. You’re asking for folks to [swallow] an 8 to 10 percent reduction in their salaries,” he said.
Mayor Daley wants Chicagoans to believe he knew nothing about his nephew’s risky real estate venture with $68 million worth of city employee pension funds until the Chicago Sun-Times blew the whistle nearly two years ago.
He wants us to believe that, the minute he did find out, he ordered his nephew Robert Vanecko to drop out of the deal with developer Allison Davis, only to be ignored.
The photos are from a frustrated club worker who says some officers have been slow to respond to his calls and he believes these pictures show why.
“Girls leaning into cars….”
Alderman Waguespack told us, “I would think the police department will be all over it, and looking at it as a management issue and something they have to take seriously.”
Like one picture in which a woman is sitting on an officer’s lap inside a squad car, her hands within easy reach of the officer’s gun.
* Quigley says he feels public defender’s cash pain
* Ex-DNR chief Granberg wants to push on with golf trail
Chicago’s two remaining baseball clubs open a three-game series at Wrigley Field on Tuesday night and you are thinking, remaining?
Cubs. Sox. And the ghost.
That would be the Chicago Whales, the team for whom the park was built and who, it pains me to say, show every sign of haunting the place, 94 years after they vanished. How else to explain the cruel things that have happened in the stadium ever since? A spat about a goat? Please. Darker forces are at play here, and one need look no further than the tale of the man who owned both clubs to appreciate how fate — and greed — can turn promise to despair.
His name was Charles Weeghman, and in his better days was known as “Lucky Charlie.” It would be unfair to suggest that Charlie Weeghman sold his soul to buy the Cubs. It just looks that way, given all that would befall him and the team he so badly wanted.
* I’ve been wondering who would be the first, and the “winner” doesn’t really surprise me. Republican Joe Birkett is the first Illinois politician (that I know of, anyway) to use the Iranian democracy protests to his own political advantage. From an e-mail…
Recognize the Heroes in Iran … Honor Them by Fighting for Reform at Home
As we speak, reformers in Iran are showing us what it means to treasure the right to vote and protest government.
In the wake of questionable election results in which Iranian despot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was “re-elected” …. Iranian students and reformers have taken to the streets to protest.
Despite a media blackout, Iranian citizens are risking their lives to use online tools like YouTube and Twitter to tell their story to the rest of the world. Some of these protesters have been beaten, jailed or killed for their efforts.
It is a stark reminder that we should never take for granted our right to vote – and that we should avoid becoming apathetic amid our distrust of the corruption-plagued government that has inflicted Illinois for the past six years. […]
P.S. To reform Illinois, we need the financial resources to match the Democrats. Your immediate online investment in honest government can help us do just that.
* Meanwhile, Democratic Treasurer and US Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias made his first post at Daily Kos today…
So, I’ve set a goal for my campaign: 5,000 grassroots volunteers signed up on our website. If you believe that the person elected to President Obama’s seat should wage a campaign he would be proud of, then join us today.
* And Greg Hinz thinks Mark Kirk should run for governor…
But if there ever were a time to bring an outside moderate to Springfield, someone who knows government but hasn’t even vaguely been part of creating the utter mess Illinois government has become, it’s now. Consider: change, reform, unity. Remind you of the campaign another Illinoisan ran recently, congressman?
Sometimes in politics, you’ve got to play on the field where your game works best, even if it isn’t the field you know best. If Mark Kirk wants to move up right now, his best play is for governor, not the Senate.
Quinn asked Democratic state officials to also take his side on the budget, in particular Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who’s been mulling a run for governor.
QUINN: If you want to run for governor or be governor, you gotta get in the arena. You can’t be on the sidelines.
* The SJ-R tells legislative Republicans to get off their duffs and help solve the budget problem…
Cut first, reform the budget process, then “discuss” new revenues. This is the Republican creed on Illinois’ two-year, $12 billion budget deficit. House Republican votes are needed to pass a budget that doesn’t massacre services and state employees by the fiscal year’s July 1 start.
This principle is reasonable if considered in a vacuum. But the impossibility of major budget reforms before the July deadline and the near certainty of layoffs and service cuts if it is blown make this an unreasonable stance. Legislators need to find the revenue now.
* Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno compared Gov. Quinn to Rod Blagojevich and lit into him…
“He is trying to instill panic. I think that is cynical, I think it is morally unacceptable and it is very Rod Blagojevich-like. It is wrong, wrong, wrong and it doesn’t need to be happening,” Radogno said
Radogno, however, did concede Friday that cutting the state budget alone will not come up with the cash needed to make ends meet. “Cuts are one piece of the puzzle and they may not be enough to entirely solve the problem,” she said
She also said she wants pension and Medicaid reform before considering a tax hike.
* I’ve been warning the governor’s people about this for weeks, but considered it a bit too tinfoil hatty for publication and deleted it from stories at least twice…
There are many theories floating around about how all of this will play out. Here’s one from an experienced Statehouse veteran that is intriguing.
July 1 comes and goes with Quinn and the four leaders agreeing to nothing. Quinn could accept the budget sent to him by lawmakers and try to stretch the spending through an entire year, slashing and hacking programs along the way. Or he could spend wildly to spare job losses and program cuts now and hope that something is resolved before the state runs completely out of money in January or February.
Under this scenario, the Legislature returns sometime after Christmas but before Jan. 15 and raises the income tax. That puts it after the deadline for people to file to run for the General Assembly. It also puts it just before the primary election, an election where we already know Quinn will have opponents, maybe even including the speaker’s daughter.
…Adding… Also, as I’ve told subscribers and column readers, this can’t be done without a lot of other legislation, which is another reason I’ve deleted it from stories that I was writing.
It’s tough to find people who truly believe that Gov. Pat Quinn will ultimately approve draconian budget cuts in the coming fiscal year in order to force a tax increase. But his people insist it’s coming, and the administrative planning appears to be moving forward with deliberate speed.
The governor has three choices:
• He could veto the budget approved by the General Assembly and force a showdown overtime session. The budget will fund only half of social service programs for next fiscal year. A veto would create an immediate confrontation, but it also would put him in the same sort of league with Rod Blagojevich, and Quinn doesn’t want or need that comparison. Plus, the overtime session could drag on for weeks as leaders try to put together another budget plan. And until there is a plan, Republicans will face no real pressure to act. Instead, they’ll get daily opportunities to bash Quinn and the Democrats.
• Quinn also is being urged to treat the “50 percent budget” as if it’s really a six-month budget. This plan would put off a vote on taxes until next year. But the governor’s office maintains that this can’t be done legally.
• The third option is to sign the budget into law as is, which will lead to horrific cuts. That’s the direction Quinn is heading. Yes, he has appeared to back off of some big fights. And, yes, he’s a deeply liberal and religious man who abhors the very idea of massive cuts, particularly the billions of dollars slashed from human service grant programs.
“I don’t believe in holding the Sword of Damocles over the heads of innocent people,” Quinn said last week.
But that mythical sword soon will become all too real. At least two state prisons reportedly are on the chopping block. Thousands of state employees could be laid off if the union doesn’t agree to other cutbacks. Quinn said last week that the cuts to private human service agency grants alone would result in 200,000 job losses.
Quinn will have to hope that the threat of doom will be enough to move legislators to action. “I’m disappointed that we aren’t having enough urgency,” Quinn said. Urgency assuredly will hit the fan soon.
Threats alone may not work. Legislators have heard doomsday warnings for years and nothing has ever come of it. Late last year, many were predicting a government shutdown by spring because the legislature had adjourned with a $2 billion-plus deficit and revenues were tanking right along with the economy. A shutdown never happened.
Once they’ve been around for a while, legislators realize that almost everybody they deal with is always in crisis mode: If the state doesn’t do “X,” then catastrophe is certain. But those catastrophes never seem to come.
Quinn’s first attempt at threatening doomsday last month was met with yawns. The bottom line was nobody took him seriously. They still don’t.
Quinn appeared to run from a fight with the teachers and public employee unions when he succumbed way too soon on a plan to force workers to pay more into their pension plans.
The lifelong reformer has been excoriated by reform groups for “caving” to the old bulls on campaign finance reform.
If you look weak in this business, you are weak.
His repeated homilies to the poor and outcast make people believe he won’t play a role in their devastation. Therefore, his warnings probably won’t work.
The governor should reread Cicero’s story about that infamous sword. The actual lesson is that the powerful are not as happy as they seem because they are under constant, perilous threat.
“There can be nothing happy for the person over whom some fear always looms,” Cicero explained.
Quinn has been on the outside mocking insiders all his adult life, and now he’s gotten what he always wanted and is on top of the heap, only to look up and see a gigantic sword dangling by a thread over his head. The peasant Damocles had envied the king’s power, but he panicked and fled at the sight of the sword hanging above the throne.
In the coming days, we’re going to find out what Quinn is really made of.
* The National Law Journal claims that the Department of Justice may rein in “honest services” prosecutions while the Supreme Court considers an appeal…
A key weapon in the arsenal of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald and his prosecutors in Chicago has been a section of the federal anti-fraud statute that makes it a crime to deprive citizens or corporate shareholders of “honest services.” It’s been used to convict dozens of state and local government officials, as well as newspaper magnate Conrad Black and former Gov. George Ryan of Illinois. Fitzgerald cited the honest services in the April indictment of another ex-Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich.
But the U.S. Supreme Court’s May decision to review Black’s 2007 conviction may put the brakes on the honest services provision. The U.S. Department of Justice is likely to rein in use of the provision, 18 U.S.C. 1346, until the high court rules on Black’s appeal next term, former federal prosecutors say. “Anytime that there’s a high-profile review of a conviction, the department tends to just stop in its tracks, and this is a very high-profile review,” said Matt Orwig, a partner and criminal defense attorney in the Dallas office of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal and former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas. “There’s going to have to be some very careful analysis of how they’ve approached these cases in the past.” […]
Orwig, who didn’t recall using the charge when he was a U.S. attorney, said he thinks the section has been “over-used.” It was the lead charge lodged by U.S. attorney offices against 79 suspects in fiscal year 2007, up from 63 in 2005 and 28 in 2000. (The Justice Department doesn’t consistently track it as a secondary charge.)
Is it getting out of hand? I’ve been hearing lots of comments both for and against this type of prosecution. Prosecutors, like most bureaucrats, will usually tend to take their mandates to the extreme. That’s why we don’t allow bureaucrats to rule us unfettered, despite what some editorial boards may wish for.
* Meanwhile, this lawsuit hasn’t received much coverage here yet…
Four Illinois riverboat casinos are suing former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich as they continue to fight a state law that requires them to share their profits with the state’s ailing horse racing tracks.
In a federal RICO complaint, four casinos say former Gov. Rod Blagojevich used the governor’s office to enrich himself, his campaign committee and other conspirators. The casinos claim Blagojevich schemed with horse track owner John Johnston to secure enactment of the 2006 and 2008 Racing Act bills, which forced casinos to pay millions of dollars to five horse tracks, including Balmoral Park and Maywood Park, both owned or control by Johnston.
To conceal their actions, Johnston arranged for the money to be paid through several entities under his control, according to the complaint. As a result, the plaintiff casinos say they had to pay $89.2 million for redistribution to horse tracks and their owners, fattening the tracks’ profits at the plaintiffs’ expense.
The law was enacted in 2006 and mandated that the casino funds be transferred to the horse tracks for two years. The complaint says that after the 2006 passage, “Blagojevich and Johnston and possibly others in the horse racing industry, agreed that Johnston or his affiliates would pay Blagojevich or Friends of Blagojevich money in exchange for ensuring the enactment” of the law. The complaint says that a month after Mr. Blagojevich signed the 2006 law, Mr. Johnston contributed $125,000 to Friends of Blagojevich though various affiliates. “To conceal their unlawful scheme, Johnston arranged for this money to paid through several entities under his control,” the suit alleges.
Mr. Reinberg said Mr. Johnston’s campaign contributions to Mr. Blagojevich were routine, and timed to an annual June fundraiser for the Governor, and not payment for enactment of the initial 2006 law, as the suit alleges.
Mr. Johnston “never made a contribution to Governor Blagojevich or any other politician with a quid pro quo or any expectation that the Governor would act on his behalf,” Mr. Reinberg said.
The record is clear that it is the Chicago political machine that has brought Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, to its present intolerable state of corruption.
* Potential GOP US Senate candidate Mark Kirk has scheduled a press conference today to announce that he wants to throw people in prison for 25 years for trafficking “high potency” marijuana…
U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk will call for legislation Monday that would toughen drug-trafficking laws regarding a highly potent form of marijuana, with penalties of up to 25 years in prison for a first-time offense.
The law would target offenders who sell or distribute marijuana that has a THC content exceeding 15 percent, which is between 5 and 10 percentage points higher than average marijuana, according to Kirk’s office.
THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the main active ingredient in marijuana.
Drug dealers are increasingly cross-breeding plants to produce high-potency variants of marijuana, which are called “kush” in street slang when they have 20 percent THC, Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran said.
But Bryan Brickner, a co-founder of the Illinois chapter of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws said the law would target medical users. “He’s saying we want you to use the lower grade stuff — so you have to smoke more just to get the same amount of relief.”
And there’s some confusion in media reports about what this stuff really is. That top story from the Tribune claims he’s targeting pot that’s 20 percent THC. The Sun-Times says it’s 15 percent. And the Waukegan paper says…
“Kush,” a new strain of hydroponically grown marijuana that reportedly has five times the potency of strains from the early 1990s.
Whenever politicians get all hyper about some “new” drug, it’s time to be suspicious about their claims - and their proposed remedies. Remember that old saying: When the only tool you ever use is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
* Meanwhile, GOP state Rep. Dave Winters describes what he’s been doing to round up support for lieutenant governor…
“I’ve been meeting with Republican leaders all over the state. I’ve met with Andy McKenna, the party chairman, and with (former) Gov. Jim Thompson. I’m getting a very good response throughout the state,“ Winters told me Friday.
* According to a new Rasmussen poll, 58 percent of Illinoisans don’t think the General Assembly can balance the state’s budget without an income tax hike…
How likely is it that the Illinois legislature can balance the state budget without increasing the state income tax?
11% Very likely
25% Somewhat likely
40% Not very likely
18% Not at all likely
6% Not sure
Because of the somewhat awkward wording of the question, it’s difficult to know whether the majority has no faith in the GA’s ability to do this without a tax hike, or they understand the budget problem better than most people think (and better than many newspaper editorial writers do). Or both.
The poll surveyed 500 likely voters and was conducted June 9th. MoE is +/- 4.5.
* On to politics. You can click the image for a larger view, but here are favorable ratings for Lisa Madigan, Roland Burris, Pat Quinn, Chris Kennedy and Rod Blagojevich…
Lisa Madigan continues to be one of the most popular politicians in Illinois. A 65 percent favorable rating is pretty darned good.
* Should Lisa Madigan run for Governor or Senate?
21% Governor
23% Senate
56% Not sure
No help there.
* Gov. Quinn’s numbers are still super soft…
* Should Pat Quinn run for re-election as Governor of Illinois in 2010?
32% Yes
34% No
34% Not sure
* How would you rate the job Pat Quinn has been doing as Governor… ?
* How likely is it that Pat Quinn will be reelected as Governor?
8% Very likely
48% Somewhat likely
28% Not very likely
4% Not at all likely
13% Not sure
* If Quinn runs for re-election as Governor, would you definitely vote for him, definitely vote against him, or would it depend upon who was running against him?
13% Definitely vote for him
23% Definitely vote against him
63% It would depend on who was running against him
2% Not sure
* If anything in this poll gets covered, it’s likely this question…
* To win his appointment to the United States Senate, how likely is it that Roland Burris was involved in unethical pay to play politics?
50% Very likely
27% Somewhat likely
9% Not very likely
2% Not at all likely
12% Not sure
Sixty-one percent (61%) of Illinois voters now say they would definitely vote against Democratic Senator Roland Burris if he runs for a full term in 2010, according to a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state.
That result is up from 54% back in April. Burris was named to the Senate by since-impeached Governor Rod Blagojevich to fill the seat vacated by Barack Obama.
Only six percent (6%) of voters would definitely vote for Burris, while 32% say their vote would depend on who runs against him.
Burris has not yet said whether he intends to seek a full term in the Senate next year, but 74% of Illinois voters say he should not run. Just 13% say he should.
Flowers, superintendent of the Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education, not only hired his two sisters and a nephew to work for him but has dipped into the office cash when the paycheck wasn’t enough for his relatives.
Less than a year after his election, he approved a $6,000 cash advance to sister Barbara Flowers.
“Repayments were to occur each pay period starting on April 4, 2008. The payroll register does not show any repayments between this date and June 30, 2008,” according to a report by the state’s auditor general, who this week called on the Illinois attorney general and Cook County state’s attorney to investigate Flowers’ operation of the office.
County president Todd Stroger’s cousin, former chief financial officer Donna Dunnings, gave her former secretary paid time off that he did not earn for workdays he was locked in county jail. Dunnings also signed time cards that claimed Cole worked weekends that he did not show up at the office, county records show.
To date, national home prices have declined by 27%. Fitch Rating’s revised peak-to-trough expectation is for prices to decline by 36% from the peak price achieved in mid-2006. The additional 9% decline represents a 12.5% decline from today’s levels.
About a quarter of manufacturing companies and more than 40 percent of service-sector employers plan to hire workers in June, the highest totals in six months, the Society for Human Resource Management reports. It’s a bit of good news, even if the figures are substantially lower than they were a year ago.
The Labor Department’s most recent Job Openings and Labor Turnover report showed some pockets of growth for the first time in months: 458,000 openings for lawyers, accountants and other professional business services, up 30,000.
During the school year that ended Friday, about 84 percent of Chicago public school students received free or reduced-price breakfasts and lunches, meaning that with summer’s arrival, nearly 342,000 children are no longer receiving the meals each day in their school cafeterias.
Given those numbers and the weak economy, local food pantries fear a need will appear this summer in Chicago like never before.
“It’s definitely an issue that food pantries have talked about for a long time. But this year, it could be a more pronounced issue,” said Bob Dolgan, spokesman for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which reported a 36 percent increase in overall demand this year.
How can you sell little bottles of water for three bucks and still go broke? Yes, financial situations are complex. And yes, Six Flags — the New York-based amusement park company that runs, among its 20 locations, Six Flags Great America in Gurnee — had a good year last year. But still it’s $2.4 billion in debt and filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
* Downstate Illinois carbon capture coal plant back on track
The Auto Club’s most recent Fuel Gauge Report estimates that in Illinois, regular unleaded gasoline has increased 45 cents during the past month, forecasting an average cost of $2.85 per gallon for the month of June, which is still $1.27 lower per gallon than last year.
Mayor Daley and a small entourage from the Chicago 2016 organizing committee and the U.S. Olympic Committee are traveling to Olympic headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, to make a final sales pitch before as many as 90 of the 100 members of the International Olympic Committee — the governing body that plans to announce Oct. 2 which city gets the Games.
The city of Chicago Friday announced it would cut 1,504 unionized workers unless a last-minute deal is reached with labor unions. Gene Saffold is the city’s chief financial officer. He says layoff letters were being delivered to employees Friday through next Tuesday.
At the 10 intersections that have had cameras the longest, the number or red-light violations — and accompanying mailed-out tickets — has dropped 74 percent, on average, in the last four years.
