The administration is withdrawing the nominations of Julie Hamos and Michael Geldner to the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board in order to appoint members who more closely share the governor’s vision for hospitals around the state. We appreciate their willingness to serve. The governor’s priority is to work with communities to ensure their health care needs are met.
* As you’ll recall, Hamos and Geldner both voted against delaying the closure of Westlake Hospital last week until the lawsuits that were filed to keep the hospital open could be adjudicated. After that motion to delay failed, the full board voted to allow the hospital to close…
Board member Julie Hamos said Tuesday that losing hospitals is tough for communities, but she expects to see more hospitals closing in coming years as advances in medicine make inpatient care less necessary.
“We are really on the cusp of a very significant change in our health care system,” said Hamos, who was recently appointed to the board by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and is a former lawmaker. She said deferring the application would simply have shifted a decision on the matter to the courts.
* Hamos and Geldner had been appointed by Gov. Pritzker to the Health Facilities and Services Review Board not long before the vote and their action prompted an immediate denunciation from Rep. Chris Welch, who is a staunch Speaker Madigan ally and chairs the powerful House Executive Committee…
Following the decision, Democratic state Rep. Emanuel Chris Welch of Westchester, who is also a member of Westlake’s board of trustees, said: “Gov. Pritzker let us down. We went to bat for him, and his appointees went to bat for billionaires from California.”
The vote took place on the first day lawmakers returned to town from a two-week break, so it was a particularly inauspicious beginning to the session’s home stretch.
* Rep. Welch’s response…
It’s a good start. He never should have appointed them in the first place. Now he needs to do more to ensure our community continues to have access to healthcare.
* Meanwhile, Rep. Welch, Rep. Kathleen Willis and Melrose Park Mayor Ronald Serpico have penned an op-ed calling on AG Raoul to step in. Excerpt…
Westlake is the only hospital in the area with a major behavioral and addictions mental health wing. Chicago’s near west suburbs are ground zero for the opium epidemic. With 50 beds in a dedicated psychiatric wing, Westlake Hospital is the main organization on the front lines of this crisis.
Newly elected Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul is in a unique position.
The Village of Melrose Park has filed for a temporary restraining order that would prevent Westlake Hospital from closing. In violation of Illinois law, the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board voted last week not to defer Pipeline’s application to shut the hospital down due to pending legislation.
Melrose Park is currently suing Pipeline for fraudulently purchasing Westlake Hospital.
Raoul was elected on a platform of access to healthcare. He now has the opportunity to stop an out of state investment company from stripping healthcare access away from 40,000 low income, minority people.
The order to stay the HFSRB decision will be heard in court Tuesday.
We’re calling on Raoul to stand up for the healthcare rights of the vulnerable people who elected him to his current office.
(H)ere’s a scenario for an overtime session laid out by a lawmaker recently.
This is not an endorsement of the theory, just relating one person’s thoughts about something that could happen.
It goes like this: Until the end of May, most bills can pass with regular majorities in the House and Senate. After that date, it takes a super majority to pass bills if they take effect immediately, like the budget.
There are things that take a super majority no matter when they are passed. That includes proposed amendments to the state Constitution (like the graduated income tax) and bonds that that would be issued for a capital program. Ergo, if things get backed up as crunch time approaches, there are issues that could be pushed to June without changing how many votes are needed to pass them.
* The Question: Do you think the spring session will go into overtime? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
* We’ve been expecting a message from on high for a while now and it looks like we got two today…
In his visit with the Public Affairs Reporting program class at the University of Illinois Springfield, Madigan (D-Chicago) said legislative committees in control of budget appropriations have taken Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed levels of spending in next year’s budget and “ratcheted them down” in case measures supporting that spending do not pass.
Those measures include legalizing recreational marijuana and sports betting, which Madigan said are “not guaranteed today.”
And while he supports Pritzker’s attempts to change the state’s income tax structure from a flat to a graduated rate, Madigan said the Senate moved too quickly on the issue, and should have “given it more time.” The Senate on Wednesday, May 1, approved a bill and resolution that would put an amendment question on the 2020 ballot about instituting tax rates based on income.
Madigan’s comments indicate a slower-than-expected pace of passing new legislation with Democrats in control of the Legislature and governor’s office.
“Have you ever worked with Democrats?” he joked.
*** UPDATE 1 *** Madigan’s spokesman Steve Brown claims the House Speaker was responding to a question about the length of the Senate’s surprisingly short seven-minute debate, not that the Senate had moved too quickly on the issue itself.
And while he fully supports Pritzker’s attempts to change the state’s income tax structure from a flat to a graduated rate, Madigan said the Senate moved too quickly when it debated for only 7 minutes Wednesday, May 1, before passing a bill and resolution that would put an amendment question on the 2020 ballot.
“It should not have gone that quick in the Senate,” he said, adding that the chamber should have given the debate “more time.”
“It’s not just a statute — it’s an amendment to the constitution,” Madigan said. “It goes right to the heart of how you finance state government…clearly something like that deserved more attention than it got.”
Nevertheless, he said he was “optimistic” the graduated tax measures will pass in the House.
Urges lawmakers to slow the process of legalizing recreational marijuana in Illinois, so that lawmakers, stakeholders, and experts alike have the chance to consider the societal impact of legalization and examine all the data from other states that have passed similar legislation.
* Moylan is no longer arguing for a go-slow approach. He said today he wants to kill it…
He admitted he wasn’t sure a coalition of 60 of his House colleagues who signed a resolution urging more time to debate legalization issues would hold together.
“There may be some [who] are going to leave, but we’ll get more in,” said Moylan, who added he’d be against any effort to legalize recreational marijuana.
* Moylan announced his shift in a recent Tribune op-ed…
The Chicago Tribune Editorial Board rightly advised lawmakers to slow down on marijuana (“Should Illinois legalize marijuana? Not so fast,” April 14). As the sponsor of a bipartisan House resolution (H.R. 157) advising lawmakers to slow down on their push for legal weed, I couldn’t agree more. Both the editorial board and I also agree it’s imperative that policymakers learn from other states. But I would argue it’s been a failed experiment in every other state that has made the move to legalize marijuana — and for those reasons, we must not bring legal recreational marijuana to Illinois too.
He went on to cite statistics from some thoroughly debunked sources that I’m not going over again because I’ve done this more than once now and I’m just bored with it. Instead, here are a few posts from the past…
* You’ll recall last week when Speaker Madigan signed on to a letter requesting $150 million out of the capital bill for the proposed third airport near Peotone. Mayor Emanuel responded over the weekend via press release…
The significant modernization programs underway at O’Hare and Midway will keep passengers connected and fuel new economic opportunities for the region for years to come. In fact, when the O’Hare expansion is complete, it will be the equivalent of adding a third airport to the area. O’Hare is already number one and our modernization will secure it and the Chicago area’s aviation future. If the state has an extra $150 million to spend, schools, mass transit, libraries and parks could wisely use those resources
Gov. Pritzker was asked about the back and forth while attending a media event with the mayor today. He mostly dodged the question, saying that economic development is “critically important” to the south suburbs, where communities are often “left out or left behind.” He said the airport was one of several economic opportunities and claimed the capital bill will “certainly take into account where we can be of help in the south suburbs.”
“The governor has to look out for the state of Illinois, I’ve got to look out for Chicago,” Emanuel then said when asked by reporters.
The one thing that you should not lose sight before we get to Peotone or a third airport, the fact that people are now talking confidently after 25 years about a capital bill in the state of Illinois. And I want to compliment the governor for actually driving this issue where others have talked about it for over 25 years, that was the last time we actually had a true capital bill. … In the past it was ‘Can we get this done?’ now it’s ‘How do you spend the resources?’ That’s a marked difference.
They’re not quite to that spending conversation yet because they haven’t yet settled on how to pay for it.
“Midway is an incredible economic force for the Chicago’s Southwest Side. Its growth has been a major driver for development of the area and the city’s tourism industry. I am committed to supporting economic development that transforms neighborhoods, but we must also protect the existing institutions which have been spearheading so much current investment and growth,” Lightfoot said in a statement to the Sun-Times.
“If and when the time comes, I will be actively engaged in the conversation about an additional airport while ensuring that our investments in Midway continue to provide economic development.”
Democrat Marie Newman, in a second primary bid to oust Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., is being endorsed by six leading progressive organizations, with the groups jumping in the race months earlier than they did for her in 2018.
The Monday joint endorsement of Newman from EMILY’s List, MoveOn, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America sends a strong signal to progressives in the 3rd Congressional District.
Democracy for America earlier announced its support for Newman.
“Just getting started earlier is the big thing because that just expands the universe of voters that we can have ongoing conversations with,” Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, told the Chicago Sun-Times.
In the March 2018 primary, Lipinski, from Western Springs, defeated Newman, who lives in LaGrange, by only 2,145 votes, or 51.1 percent to 48.9 percent, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. The district includes parts of Southwest Side Chicago and takes in south and western suburban turf.
“I’m honored to receive support from EMILY’s List, MoveOn, NARAL, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and the PCCC,” said Marie Newman, candidate for Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District. “Illinois working families need a real Democrat with real plans to make everybody’s everyday lives better. I’ll never stop fighting to create an economy and society that works for everyone.”
Rep. Lipinski, the current representative for Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District, has made a name for himself siding with anti-choice activists and supporting a bigoted agenda instead of standing up for the real values of his constituents in a solidly progressive district. He has consistently attacked reproductive freedom and a woman’s right to make her own decisions about if, when, and how to start a family. He has refused to sign onto the Equality Act to guarantee equal protection to LGBTQ Americans. And he has repeatedly sided with Donald Trump and his racist and extreme agenda. He is out of touch with his voters and his party, and is not the representative the people of Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District deserve.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) announced earlier this year that it would not deal with vendors who work for candidates challenging Democratic incumbents in primaries. Newman told Politico last month that four consultants had left her campaign as a result of that policy.
*** UPDATE *** Dan Lipinski…
These endorsements make clear that Marie Newman is again running a “tea party of the left” campaign at the behest of national interest groups rather than focusing on taking care of the everyday concerns of people in the district as I have a track record of doing. This type of campaign, along with Ms. Newman’s hateful, Trump-like rhetoric, her penchant for spreading falsehoods - which she was called out for recently by an independent fact-checker, and the #metoo issues in her 2018 campaign she has still yet to address, will once again be rejected by voters. I continue to be focused on working with my Democratic colleagues in the House to deliver relief for middle class families with better job opportunities, improved infrastructure, more affordable health care and college education, safer gun laws, and lower taxes.
Moody’s has written a new report on the current discussion regarding the State of Illinois’ (rated Baa3/stable outlook) potentially replacing its flat income tax system with a tiered, or “progressive” income tax for additional revenue. The report states that if Illinois makes the replacement, it would likely gain increased revenue-raising flexibility to tackle a growing pension burden and unbalanced budget, but in order to change to a progressive tax system voters must pass a state constitutional amendment, a politically difficult process.
“A positive outcome for the state’s credit standing would require that the new system yield substantial net new revenue, without material damage to the economy, and the new revenue be largely allocated to addressing the state’s retirement benefit liabilities on a recurring basis,” said Ted Hampton, Vice President & Senior Credit Officer
While the new flexibility to impose higher tax rates on wealthier residents offers the potential to help the state address its increasingly onerous pension funding burden, it would also leave the state more vulnerable to the volatility inherent in financial market performance and other sources of revenue that drive high-income tax payments. Illinois already relies on income taxes for about 44% of revenue, which could increase to more than 50% with progressive tax rates, depending on the tax rates ultimately adopted.
The report’s highlights include:
The scale and use of incremental revenue would determine credit effects. If the constitutional amendment ultimately passes, its impact would depend on the degree to which the state derives new resources and uses them to address core credit challenges, most prominently pension obligations.
Economic and revenue strength provides capacity for higher income tax rates. Industrial diversity and high wealth levels give Illinois the ability to support a higher tax burden, even though it already ranks above the 50-state average in terms of state and local government tax revenue as a share of GDP.
Flexibility to set multiple income tax rates would help Illinois, but not without risks. Increasing reliance on income tax revenues and on higher-earning taxpayers would expose the state to greater revenue volatility.
* The report takes note of the opponents’ claim that the progressive tax will drive people out of state…
However, while rising state tax burdens would likely have some impact, migration between states is more likely to reflect demographic or employment factors.
But that point about revenue volatility is important. Large fortunes rise and fall with the markets. Some money needs to be set aside to deal with this prospect.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker is evaluating a developer’s request for state help to fund construction of a $3.8 billion transit center as part of a megadevelopment along Lake Shore Drive across from Soldier Field.
Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said administration officials, including Deputy Gov. Dan Hynes, the governor’s budget point man, “have met with the developers to understand their proposal.”
“The administration is reviewing the plan and we look forward to continuing discussions,” Abudayyeh wrote in an email.
Lawmakers in the Illinois House will be briefed on the developer’s proposal — which would have the state assume ownership of the transit center after construction costs are paid off — at a hearing scheduled for Thursday in Springfield. Legislation that would make the arrangement possible has not been filed.
Pritzker has wisely stopped short of endorsing the proposal or Dunn’s specific request to pass legislation this year to allow his company to be reimbursed for the cost of building the transit center from new state tax revenue that the overall development would create. The final figures are not available. Taxpayers need to know a lot more about the risks involved in this arrangement before getting aboard this particular train. This city may be good at making real estate out of nothing, but until it finds a way to make money out of nothing, its elected leaders—whether in Chicago or Springfield—should proceed on this idea with caution.
* Press release…
The Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus released the following statement urging the passage of legislation that would ensure greater representation of Latinos, African Americans and women on corporate boards:
“As elected officials of one of the most diverse states in our country, it is on us to ensure that the communities we represent have a seat at the table. Communities of color and women have and are still underrepresented in positions of power, and that is unacceptable.
“Members of all of our communities have had tireless leaders who have fought not only in securing their own rights and access to economic, social, and political opportunity, but to create a fairer and more just society for all Americans. Ensuring women and people of color are represented on corporate boards will build on that progress, ensuring that we live up to our ideals of inclusion.
“We urge our colleagues in the Senate to move swiftly and ensure that all residents in Illinois have a say when decisions are being made.”
Diversity in the boardrooms of Chicago’s biggest public companies is improving, but the gains aren’t spread evenly.
Women are far better represented today than they were five years ago. There are 103 women serving on boards of the 40 largest corporations on Crain’s list of public companies. Five years ago, there were 74, according to a review of proxy statements for each of those companies.
Minorities—defined as African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans—today number 72 on those boards compared with 59 five years ago.
Corporate Chicago’s percentages are generally in line with similarly sized public companies throughout the country. Female directors make up 24 percent of the board members of Chicago’s top 40. The national average also was 24 percent at companies last year in the S&P 500, according to recruitment firm Spencer Stuart, which tracks boardroom trends annually.
Minorities make up 16 percent of directors locally. That’s just shy of 17 percent nationally last year for the top 200 companies by revenue in the S&P 500. At the 20 largest Chicago corporations—which would correspond more closely to the top 200 in the S&P 500—the percentage of minorities also is 17 percent.
And then there was a visit with Carlinville High School seniors Andrew DeNeve, Tyler Behme, Travis Osborn, Tristen Burns, and Tucker Green.
As part of their requirements for civics class, they had to put together a Civics Action Plan that makes the case to their elected official as to why daylight saving time should be eliminated. Andrew DeNeve called my district office to ask for a meeting for them to make their case to me directly–so we met today.
After their presentation and me peppering them with numerous questions, I committed to them that I would introduce legislation next week in the Illinois Senate to abolish daylight saving time in Illinois. I was impressed with the very strong case they presented and that deserves a debate in Springfield. One catch–when our legislation is called for a hearing in a Senate Committee, they agreed to come to a Senate Committee and present their research.
A dark money group opposing Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s “fair tax” plans to launch a lengthy TV ad attack Monday that calls the tax shift “unfair” and dubs the billionaire governor untrustworthy in light of a reported federal investigation into his own property tax savings.
With just three weeks to go before the Illinois General Assembly adjourns, Ideas Illinois fired off a six-figure media blitz — with a TV ad to run in Springfield on broadcast and cable TV until the end of the legislative session — to try to thwart the Illinois House from passing Pritzker’s preferred graduated income tax plan. The buy also includes digital ads in Chicago, and more mailers and digital ads in six targeted districts.
ANNC: JB Pritzker says his tax plan is all about fairness:
PRITZKER NEWS CLIP 1: “A fair tax…”
PRITZKER NEWS CLIP 2: “Fair tax…”
PRITZKER NEWS CLIP 3: “I choose fairness.”
ANNC: Can we trust him? The feds don’t:
ABC7’s CRAIG WALL: “The FBI is investigating Governor Pritzker…
“Pritzker got $331,000 in tax breaks… by having the toilets ripped out, claiming the home was uninhabitable.”
ANNC: That’s not “fair” – that’s fraudulent. Maybe even criminal.
PRITZKER NEWS CLIP 4: “The wealthy aren’t paying their fair share.”
ANNC: But you will if Pritzker gets his way.
Tell legislators: Don’t let him cheat us again. Say no to his unfair jobs tax.
No Madigan? /s
* Meanwhile, the Center for Illinois Politics took a look at the spending so far. This doesn’t include what’s purported to be the new six-figure buy from Ideas Illinois…
Our analysis has found that nearly $4 million has been spent since March 18 on commercials in five media markets throughout the state - Champaign, Chicago, Rockford, Peoria and St. Louis. […]
The Chicago media market - the state’s largest media market where about two-thirds of the state’s voters live, goes up to the Wisconsin border, as far west as Dekalb and LaSalle counties and as far south as Kankakee County. There, a track of spending from broadcast and cable stations within the market shows Think Big has spent $2.8 million on broadcast and cable advertising over the last several weeks on three commercials - all 15 second spots. Illinois Policy Action has spent $43,236 on anti-tax ads, while the Coalition [Ideas Illinois] has spent $292,976 on anti-tax ads. […]
The next biggest market, Champaign/Springfield/Decatur, covers 8 percent of the state’s population and includes Springfield, where lawmakers may be watching television before, after (or even during) session. Here, Think Big has spent $177,009 on broadcast and cable ads. Illinois Policy Action has spent $23,840 on broadcast and cable ads opposing the tax. […]
In Rockford, Thing Big has spent $66,111 on ads. The anti-tax groups haven’t spent any money in the market at all.
In the Peoria-Bloomington media market, Think Big has spent a total of $110,187 on cable and broadcast ads, while neither anti-tax group has spent money in that market.
In St. Louis, Think Big has spent $139,126, while the Coalition has spent $80,664 - an indication that this is a market where they think they can make a dent by spending a bit more.
* Politifact took a look at a claim by Sen. Dale Righter (R-Mattoon) about the minimum wage…
Righter said, “The last time Illinois raised the minimum wage in 2006, the very next year this state lost 50,000 jobs” and that “the prediction this time is, we’ll lose 90,000 jobs.”
Federal employment data show Righter had his facts backwards: Job numbers for 2007 rose nearly 50,000 higher than they were in 2006.
A spokeswoman said Righter was actually referring to unemployment, which did increase that year. But experts noted that spike was likely due to broader economic forces at play as the nation headed into the Great Recession. What’s more, Illinois saw unemployment decline following wage hikes that took effect in 2004 and 2005.
Righter’s prediction that Illinois’ upcoming wage increase will result in more job loss holds up no better. We traced it back to an analysis of a different minimum wage bill produced by a group that has historically opposed minimum wage hikes.
We rate Righter’s claim False.
It all depends on how you look at the numbers, I suppose. Illinois ended 2006 with 5,821,022 jobs and ended 2007 with 5,869,157 jobs, which is an increase of 48,135 jobs.
The number of unemployed Illinoisans at the end of 2006 was 293,920 and the number at the end of 2007 was 364,530, an increase of 70,610.
The unemployment rate went from 5.3 percent at the end of 2005, to 4.4 at the end of 2006, back up to 5.4 in 2007 and then up to 7.8 in 2008 and peaked at 11.3 at the end of 2009.
PolitiFact is right that the country was slipping into recession at the time, so it’s impossible to say that one specific law caused anything. And this is particularly so because the minimum wage was only increased by 25 cents an hour in 2007.
* The Illinois News Network’s publisher and general manager has penned a column entitled “Objectivity lost when the media omits the news.” I kid you not. He goes through a long meandering introduction about his world travels and then finally gets to the point…
I have watched with curiosity how media in Illinois has covered the recent stories of two state representatives who have been charged with driving under the influence, each within a short distance from the statehouse, on what was essentially a work night. Kam Buckner, a Democrat from Chicago, was arrested on March 29 a few blocks from the capitol. Steven Reick, a Republican from Woodstock, was arrested Thursday (May 2).
Each man was arrested early in the morning during session in Springfield. […]
INN published stories about Buckner on April 3 and April 5. INN published the video, which we received via a Freedom of Information Act request, on April 29. The video was aired by WGN-TV, CBS 2 Chicago, and NBC 5 Chicago within 24 hours of moving through our news wire.
All information is neutral. If you provide facts and adhere to the journalistic standards of objectivity, as a reporter you are providing the truth.
Buckner’s DUI wasn’t covered in any way by the Springfield Journal-Register, until it was packaged at the bottom of columnist/reporter Bernard Schoenberg’s news story on Reick’s arrest, which was published on Thursday (May 2) – an hour or more after Illinois News Network broke the story. The arrest occurred less than a mile from Springfield Journal-Register’s office. […]
Politico’s Illinois Playbook, a daily email newsletter roundup of Chicago, state and federal news with implications for Illinoisans, is written and aggregated by Shia Kapos. She included a link to a story about Reick’s DUI on Friday (May 3), but still hasn’t reported on Buckner’s DUI.
That is so rich. “They’re not reporting on my publication’s stories so they are biased! Biased, I say! Biased!”
This from the same news organization which used to be owned by the Illinois Policy Institute and is now the group’s office mate in Chicago. It regularly publishes columns written by Institute employees and its stories often overlap with the Institute’s own coverage.
Amid a nationwide measles outbreak, the Illinois Department of Public Health is taking steps to increase vaccination rates to prevent measles cases here.
“The Illinois Department of Public Health is proactively working to increase vaccination rates and educate the public on the importance of vaccines to prevent the spread of measles,” said Jenny Winkler, director of quality, safety and health policy at the Illinois Health and Hospital Association.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 704 cases of measles in 22 states. Seven measles cases have been identified in Illinois, Winkler said.
So, why aren’t they reporting on Bailey?! Biased, I say! Biased! /s
…Adding… A good point in comments…
Last week when news hit about the threatening letter concerning public pensions sent to legislators, IRN ran a story, multiple times, regarding a public school janitor suing over union dues.
Illinois is trying to do something no other state has accomplished, legalizing recreational marijuana by statute instead of coming up with a program on the fly after a ballot initiative.
That’s one of many reasons it’s taking so long. Legislators, led by Sen. Heather Steans and Rep. Kelly Cassidy, have been working on the bill for months, with the effort intensifying over the past several weeks. “No state has gone to tax-and-regulate by legislation vs. ballot referendum,” Cassidy, who started laying the groundwork for the bill with Steans more than two years ago, said recently. “That’s why it’s taken more time than other bigger bills.”
And it’s good that they’re taking some time because they’re able to see what has worked and what has failed in other states.
The Legislature is split along party lines with this issue, and although Democrats control both chambers, a few of them are on the fence and mirror the views of those in law enforcement and religious communities who worry about illegal sales and any addictive nature of marijuana.
Lawmakers have made an unusual step of introducing the bill first in the Senate, rather than presenting companion bills in both chambers. That’s likely because the Senate has been the friendlier venue for marijuana legislation then the House, which is expected to be a bigger hurdle.
Um, the issue has GOP support in both chambers. It doesn’t command a majority of the Republican super-minority, but the support is significant enough to say it’s bipartisan. As subscribers know, there is a big question about whether Republicans will support this particular proposal, but the governor said Saturday that he expects changes will be made.
Also, introducing one bill in one chamber is not unusual at all. Identical bills are occasionally introduced in both chambers because, for instance: 1) Sponsors have ego issues; 2) The General Assembly is preparing for ramming speed so that one chamber can have a hearing while the other chamber takes up an identical bill on the floor.
But this particular proposal does, indeed, have a better chance in the Senate partly because the Senate Democrats have 40 members, which would be equal to 80 House members. The House has 74 members.
One of the more colorful stories about Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s relationship with the Illinois General Assembly involves his 2011 threat to burn down a legislator’s house.
The newly inaugurated mayor was trying to pass a pension reform bill, and the House Democrats weren’t all that excited about it. Emanuel, the story goes, became so angry with Chicago Democratic Rep. Greg Harris for refusing to support his bill that he threatened to burn down Harris’ house if he didn’t comply.
Classic Rahm—the same guy who once infamously sent a dead fish to a pollster.
But the house-burning story was an outlier. Emanuel’s relationship with legislators was mostly cordial over the past eight years, particularly with legislative leaders in both parties.
His predecessor, Mayor Richard M. Daley, had his Springfield crew insert themselves into all sorts of Statehouse battles, even going so far as to help the city’s corporate interests pass or defeat bills.
Emanuel mainly limited his Springfield involvement to major asks, like when he needed the General Assembly to help him offer lakefront property to George Lucas for his poorly received “museum,” or when he wanted infrastructure money for the area around former President Barack Obama’s planned presidential center. Both zoomed through the two chambers with lightning speed.
The notoriously tax-averse Daley (to the point of driving his city to the verge of default) was furious about the 2011 temporary state income tax hike. Daley’s negative public comments ahead of the vote contributed to the General Assembly’s decision to nix the traditional cut the municipalities would have expected to receive from the tax increase.
The Chicago Police Department reported last week that the number of people murdered in the city fell ten percent during the first four months of 2019 compared to last year during the same period.
While that’s good news and part of a two-year downward trend, lost in much of the coverage was a worrisome murder spike in the month of April.
The Chicago Sun-Times counted 62 Chicago homicides in April, up from 37 in April of last year and 48 in April of 2017.
It’s too early to tell whether this is an aberration or a trend. Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot has been busily meeting with law enforcement officials over the past several days in an attempt to develop a plan before she takes office on May 20 and before summer starts, when street violence tends to increase as the weather warms.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker spent over a year on the campaign trail talking about his strong belief that violence is a public health issue. I happen to agree with him on this. We cannot police ourselves completely out of this problem. Violence often spreads like a disease and research has shown that when it’s treated as such, the contagion can be slowed or even halted.
As an integral part of treating violence as a public health issue, Pritzker touted his support for violence interruption programs, which do things like mediate conflicts between rival individuals and groups and try to prevent retaliations from spiraling out of control.
After then-Gov. Bruce Rauner blamed the city’s crime problem on the lack of jobs and even illegal immigrants, Pritzker countered during a debate last October by laying at least some of the blame at Rauner’s feet.
“Gun violence across the state of Illinois has gone up in the very same period that Gov. Rauner refused to compromise on a budget,” Pritzker said during the debate. “So many of the violence interruption services, human services that people have as their last vestige of connection with civilization, have gone away.”
Indeed, the General Assembly had appropriated $4.7 million for violence interruption programs in Fiscal Year 2015, Rauner’s first year in office. But Rauner stopped spending that money and then nothing was appropriated for the following fiscal year, which began July 1. Shootings spiked almost immediately.
In all of 2014, before Rauner took office, 415 people were murdered in Chicago. Rauner, who didn’t recognize the connection between violence and public health, was inaugurated in January of 2015 and the number of murders rose to 468.
The city saw another huge increase in violence in 2016, with murders soaring to 750.
But violence-prevention funding was mostly restored after taxes were raised over Rauner’s July 2017 veto. The murder rate began to decline, dropping to 650.
Not all of this trend can be attributed to violence interruption services, of course. But the one Chicago community which managed to secure non-state violence interruption funding in 2015 was the only one spared from that year’s bloody surge in killings.
On his first full day in office this past January, Pritzker told reporters he wanted to expand violence interruption programs.
“Those programs have been decimated across the state,” he said. “And so we should be focusing on interrupting violence as much as possible.”
And as he approached his first 100 days in office, Pritzker told ABC 7’s Craig Wall: “The fact is violence interruption programs addressing the issues that prevent violence before it occurs, that’s the most effective thing that we can do.”
Pritzker also touted an increase in anti-violence funding during his February budget address. “This budget adds funds for community-based violence interruption,” he told lawmakers.
The governor never actually said how much he was proposing to add to the program, but it turns out his requested increase is a mere $2 million.
Every little bit helps, obviously, and nobody is complaining yet, but the money doesn’t appear to match the governor’s soaring rhetoric.
When I asked the administration why more wasn’t appropriated, I was told there just isn’t enough available state money to go around to fund all of the things the governor wants to do, ergo his push for a graduated income tax.
Pritzker is right that these programs work, and Chicago isn’t the only Illinois city that has benefited from them over the years. Somehow, we need to find a way to do more.
