Today, Gov. JB Pritzker took the following bill action:
Bill Number: SB 886
Description: Provides for the sale of the James R. Thompson Center by competitive sealed proposal process within two years. The purchaser must enter into an agreement with the City of Chicago and CTA to maintain operations of the Clark & Lake station.
Action: Signed
Effective: Immediately
The timeline of the JRTC sale is as follows:
Phase 1 (Present to Months 3-6) — The state will draft a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to interested purchasers within the next four to six weeks and will re-engage negotiations with the City of Chicago regarding zoning and transit station within three to six months;
Phase 2 (Months 7-12) — The state will issue an RFQ and begin discussions with interested purchasers in four to six months’ time and draft and publish a Request for Proposal (RFP) to acquire and develop the property in four months’ time;
Phase 3 (Months 12-17) — The state will allow four to five months for interested purchasers to develop their proposals and respond to the RFP;
Phase 4 (Months 15-20) — The state will evaluate proposals, which includes discussions with proposers to clarify responses, within three months;
Phase 5 (Months 17-22) — The state will negotiate and award the contract within two months, which will conclude before the 24-month deadline.
Simultaneous with the sale of Thompson Center, the state will implement a planned relocation of current Thompson Center employees to the Michael A. Bilandic Building and other under-utilized, state-owned or rented facilities, consistent with recommendations made by the newly-created Pension Asset Value and Transfer Taskforce.
* The Question: Think it’ll happen? Take the poll and then explain your answer in comments, please…
…Adding… Lori Lightfoot on the sale of the Thompson Center back in February…
As a lover of Chicago’s architectural history, in general, my first instinct will always be to protect historical treasures. The Thompson Center has had a checkered history and there are valid concerns about maintenance. The fight between outgoing Governor Rauner and Mayor Emanuel should be in the rearview mirror. I would welcome dialogue with the Pritzker administration to devise a plan for the building’s future.
* Why Illinois should reform the hotel-motel tax - For municipalities, a vibrant local economy equals more business for local hotels. In the end, a town’s size should not prevent it from investing tax revenues in projects that will strengthen the entire community.
Q: You ran on getting rid of aldermanic privilege (the practice of aldermen having veto power over all permitting and zoning decisions in their wards). That’s probably easier to talk about than the mechanics of actually withdrawing that practice. It’s not like it’s a line in the city code. It’s deeper than that. How do you go about addressing that?
A: I’m going to consult with some of the alderman who have been supportive of the campaign. I’m very clear on it. Some of them have a very different view, but I’m very clear that it’s got to go. I want to do it in a way that doesn’t do further harm, the quintessential throwing the baby out with the bathwater. But it’s got to go. How do you do it? My thoughts are that because it’s not written into law and it’s just a very dominant culture … I’m thinking about an executive order from day one that says in more legalese than this, “This is not a thing. We will no longer honor this.”
Because the way that aldermanic prerogative works is there’s got to be compliance with the executive branch, because otherwise it doesn’t work. So, you’ve got to eliminate that compliance, and you make it a mandate. And then you do training, particularly in the city licensing departments whether it’s zoning, buildings, housing, planning, and you pick the people who run those agencies and the deputies that are pledging allegiance to the new world order and good governance. And then I think you have the inspector general do some spot audits to make sure that there is real compliance.
You obviously have to engage in a dialogue with the City Council. It’s not that alderman no longer are able to have notice and an opportunity to be heard. If aldermen are doing their job right, they should be the people who are closest to the vibe and the beat in their neighborhood and have a very important role to play on a number of different issues, but not a unilateral, unchecked right. That’s gone as soon as I take office, because it prevents us from engaging in citywide initiatives, it prevents us from moving ahead on important issues like affordable housing and it is fundamentally corrosive and there is no way to monitor it in a way you can bring transparency and accountability to it.
If I’ve got to go and kiss the ring of the alderman for everything, for a license to have a block club party or whatever it is and there is a catalog of all the things that are run through the aldermanic offices, that is fundamentally a problem. And it’s the tens of thousands of touches that an alderman has on a regular basis with constituents who think that they have to give some additional thing to get access to basic city services, that is the corrosive effect. And it’s obviously worse when an alderman takes that power and then tries to monetize it for him or herself.
Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot on Friday accused Ald. Edward Burke (14th) of attempting to organize the City Council against her and threatened to expose aldermen who dare to conspire with him.
“Any alderman who’s gonna try to align themselves with Ed Burke at this time — we’re gonna make sure that gets very public and exposed . . . I’m going to do everything I can to shine a light on that,” Lighfoot told the Sun-Times.
“They’re gonna have to explain to the public why they’re aligning with him against the voters of this city.” […]
“We’re not gonna resurrect the Vrdolyak 29 in the form of Ed Burke. That’s not going to happen. He can try all he wants. He’s not going to be successful,” Lightfoot said. […]
“He’s been very successful in accumulating power despite the odds and he’s not gonna give up on that easily. But beware.”
* Lightfoot urged to back off proposal to raise hotel tax: Michael Jacobson, president of the Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association, noted the total tax on a Chicago hotel room already stands at 17.5 percent. That’s the highest of any of Chicago’s leading competitors for conventions and tourism. … During Emanuel’s tenure, the number of tourists visiting Chicago grew by 40 percent—from 39 million to 55 million-a-year.
At the Barbara Sizemore Academy, a charter school in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, only 62 percent of students are protected against measles. The rest, 98 students, either have exemptions, aren’t vaccinated or didn’t bring their shot records.
Jocelyn Mills, the school principal, says the number is concerning but her hands are tied.
“Each child’s individual circumstance in their family is different,” she said, adding there are economic and social barriers that keep students from getting the shots or bringing in the paperwork.
Low-income families often move frequently, and it gets harder to keep track of important documents. Some families, she said, don’t have access to medical centers where they can get free care and some students don’t live with their parents or legal guardians. […]
But excluding students is extremely difficult for school administrators to do, Mills said. “How do you close the door to 40 percent of the population, especially when you are also on the hook for attendance?”
I’m not sure what the answer is, but the state might start with putting resources on the ground in low-income areas and telling upper-income private schools to increase their vaccination rates or face a shut-down.
* Thankfully, the Senate will try to work something out with the incoming mayor instead of just blindly zooming a bill through the chamber like the House did yesterday…
The Illinois House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to make Chicago’s school board elected rather than appointed by the mayor, approving a bill that Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot told WBEZ would be a “recipe for disaster and chaos.” […]
The vote comes just two days after Lightfoot won the election to be Chicago’s new mayor. Lightfoot campaigned in support of moving to an elected school board, but told WBEZ last week that the bill, which calls for 20 board members plus a board president, would create a school board that’s far too big.
“Having a school board of 21 people is completely unwieldy,” Lightfoot said in an interview. “That will be a recipe for disaster and chaos. It’s way too large.”
Q: A bill allowing a Chicago elected school board passed the House today (Thursday). Under that version, I think there’s 20 members and the legislature gets to draw the districts. Do you have thoughts on who should draw the boundaries, how many members there should be?
A: Well, I think there are some fundamentals that still haven’t been addressed, and I’m not fond of the bill in its current iteration at all. I don’t think you can have a number of people on a board that’s completely unwieldy and are not going to be able to do their business. We haven’t answered the questions of, “OK, if we have an elected school board, what’s the selection process?” And it can’t just be this is like aldermanic races. That’s not going to work.
I want actual parents to be able to sit on that board, and if we treat it like another political body, that’s not going to happen and that to me is absolutely untenable and a nonstarter. What the level of experience is that people have to bring, and the kinds of experiences also make a difference to me. I favor a situation where we have people who have come through the (Local School Council) process, because they have skin in the game. That means they’re probably a parent. They’ve been able to make and meet budgets. They have some expertise in doing hiring. I think all those things are very valuable skills that will help inform a school board. So obviously, Mr. (state Rep. Robert) Martwick did not confer with me about the content of his legislation. That to me is a nonstarter.
Q: So, maybe you’ve had to serve for a certain number of years on a Local School Council before you can run for school board?
A: Yeah. I want to spend a little more time with it, but that makes more sense to me than just throwing it open, because then it just becomes another political monster. We’re going to replace one broken system with another broken system, and that’s not going to build confidence in anyone. I don’t favor this bill at all. I don’t favor it.
Lots of interesting stuff in that interview, by the way. Click here to read the whole thing.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has staked his future budgets on convincing lawmakers and voters to change the state’s constitution to allow for a progressive income tax with higher rates for those who earn more, but not enough members of his own party in House are prepared to put the question to voters.
Fewer than 60 lawmakers in the House are in favor of asking voters to change the state’s flat income tax to a graduated one, according to a report from Politico. That means Pritzker could have to look to other sources to come up with the more than $3 billion he said the state needs to stabilize its finances.
Pritzker ran on changing the flat income tax to a progressive one. For that, there would need to be a constitutional amendment approved by voters. The House would need 71 votes to pass it to voters. Multiple roll call votes on the progressive tax proposal registered support “in the 50s,” Politico reported. To pass just the rates, if there were ever a constitutional change from the flat tax to the progressive tax, it would require a simple majority of 60 votes in the House.
“Leaders are having difficulty getting to 60 votes because some Democrats are pushing back on the measure. So the vote may be moved to April 30,” Politico reported.
Pritzker remained optimistic about his graduated tax plan on Thursday.
“I wouldn’t believe everything you read, but I would say, especially a few of you out here,” Pritzker said in Springfield Thursday.
State Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, confirmed Democrats don’t have the supermajority needed to get the constitutional amendment question on the ballot for voters.
“What we have now is a roll call that is short of the 71 votes, but we’ll see how the governor convinces the public and legislators and see things the way that many people do,” Ford said.
Ford said it’s important the governor doesn’t attempt to force his will on the legislature and voters. The governor needs to hear their concerns.
I went over this with subscribers yesterday and earlier today, but suffice it to say there were no hard roll calls taken and there was never a set, scheduled early April House vote to “move.” That’s just nonsense.
But a Democrat in the House said there’s been “grumbling” and “a fair degree of hesitation” in the caucus, particularly over the details of the rates.
Another Democrat, state Rep. Mike Zalewski of Chicago, said it should be relatively easy for lawmakers to put a graduated income tax on the ballot. But he says there’s more resistance on the question of what the tax rates should be.
Pritzker is proposing a modest tax cut for every income bracket below $250,000 dollars a year. In some cases, that tax cut could be $100 dollars.
State Rep. Kathleen Willis, a member of the House Democratic leadership team, said there was some concern that trumpeting such a small amount as a tax cut could be perceived as “almost insulting” by some constituents.
Still, another Democrat involved in negotiations on the tax, Rep. Robert Martwick of Chicago, says he’s not worried yet.
In this case, I’m gonna agree with Martwick. They are definitely short in the House right now. But aren’t they always short before a big vote? Yes. They keep those House Democrats afraid of their own shadows, so they have never started with a comfortable surplus of income tax votes in that chamber as long as I’ve been around. Remember marriage equality? Same sort of thing.
Also, is it common for legislators to grumble before a big and important vote like this? Always. Heck, it’s common for them to grumble on good days. That’s just what they do.
Pritzker needs lawmakers to pass a constitutional amendment eliminating the state’s flat income tax protection, which would then head to voters on the 2020 ballot. But scheduling in the General Assembly indicates Pritzker will fail to get his amendment before a key deadline: April 12, when lawmakers leave Springfield for a two-week spring break.
April 12 is not a “key deadline” for anything but moving substantive bills to the other chamber.
The time to worry is if Speaker Madigan ever takes a walk. I don’t yet see any evidence of that on this particular topic.
* I have an appointment this morning that I can’t get out of and then I think I may try to get a haircut because, man, it’s getting long. I might also run some much-needed errands after that. I just have no idea when I’ll be back today.
So, keep it Illinois-centric, use this thread to discuss any breaking news and, above all, be kind to each other.
…Adding… Appointment is over, hair is cut, errand was accomplished. I’ll be back after I finish my lunch.
