…every operator and passenger under the age of 18 on a motorcycle, motor driven cycle, or motorized pedalcycle to wear a helmet that meets federal safety standards and is properly fastened under the person’s chin with a chin strap.
Sen. Gary Forby (D-Benton), an avid motorcyclist rights defender, staunchly opposed the bill…
“I don’t want anybody in this audience telling me how to raise my kids.”
Sen. Bill Brady voted “No.” One wonders if we might hear something from the governor’s campaign operation (such as it is) soon.
* In other news that could relate to the campaign, I think we’ve pretty much known this all along, but it’s now been confirmed…
The Obama administration plans to buy a state prison in rural Thomson, Ill. regardless of whether Congress allows terrorist suspects to be transferred there, a Department of Justice official said today.
In a letter to a member of the Illinois delegation to Congress, Asst. Atty. Gen. Ronald Weich spelled out the administration’s intent to go ahead with plans to buy the near-empty Thomson prison, even if lawmakers refuse to approve it as a new home for detainees at the military-run prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
At the very least, Weich said, the federal Bureau of Prisons intends to use the facility for high-security federal inmates. The letter comes in response to questions from Rep. Donald Manzullo, the Republican who represents the area in Congress.
When he was lieutenant governor, Gov. Pat Quinn supported a beverage container deposit bill that would have imposed a 5-cent deposit on wine, alcoholic liquor and beer containers, along with bottles and cans holding soft drinks, tea, coffee, juice and water.
His argument was that such containers constitute 40 percent or more of roadside trash, largely because people drink bottled and canned beverages while away from home and are careless with their disposal.
With 8 billion beverage containers sold in Illinois in 2002, according to Quinn, a bottle bill could keep a lot more of them from winding up as environmental eyesores. He noted that states with such bills report a reduction of nearly three-fourths of beverage container litter. […]
Bottle bills are not without their critics. The Illinois Retail Merchants Association and other groups believe such laws are a burden to businesses and consumers, and they don’t like the fact that people would be returning dirty bottles and cans to grocery and convenience stores, which could introduce bugs and contamination and make it harder to pass health department inspections.
* The Question: Should the state pass a bill requiring a 5-cent deposit on bottles and cans? Explain.
The decision will be watched closely by hospitals and policymakers nationally, following years of debate over how best to quantify the charity care that non-profit medical providers dole out in exchange for tax exemptions.
It’s the most notable case nationally in the past two decades of a hospital losing its tax-exempt status over questions of its charitable commitment, says Elizabeth Mills, an attorney at Proskauer Rose LLP in Chicago who specializes in tax exemptions for health care organizations.
“Everywhere I go in the country, people ask me about the Provena case,” she says.
The case goes back to 2003, when Champaign County tax officials stripped the hospital of its exemption. Officials cited the 210-bed hospital’s $831,724 spent on “charitable activities” a year earlier, saying it fell short of the medical center’s $1.1 million in property taxes. The state’s Department of Revenue upheld that decision.
* The court ruled that Provena could not apply for a not-for-profit exemption from property taxes for a few reasons. Here’s one…
[The hospital’s income is] not derived mainly from private and public charity and held in trust for the purposes expressed in the charter. They are generated, overwhelmingly, by providing medicalservices for a fee.
Provena Hospitals likewise failed to show by clear and
convincing evidence that it satisfied factors three or five, namely, that it dispensed charity to all who needed it and applied for it and did not appear to place any obstacles in the way of those who needed and would have availed themselves of the charitable benefits it dispenses. […]
When the law says that property must be “exclusively used” for charitable or beneficent purposes, it means that charitable or beneficent purposes are the primary ones for which the property is utilized. […]
Further undermining Provena Hospitals’ claims of charity is that
even where it did offer discounted charges, the charity was often
illusory. As described earlier in this opinion, uninsured patients were charged PCMC’s “established” rates, which were more than double the actual costs of care. When patients were granted discounts at the 25% and 50% levels, the hospital was therefore still able to generate a surplus.
Provena also asked for a religious exemption. That, too, was denied…
To qualify for an exemption under that statute, the property in question must be used exclusively for religious purposes. There is no all-inclusive definition of religious purpose for tax cases. […]
If Provena Hospitals’ argument were valid, it would mean that the church rather than the judiciary is the ultimate arbiter of when and under what circumstances church property is exempt from taxation under the constitution and statutes of the State of Illinois.
The Illinois Hospital Association responds…
The Illinois Hospital Association is extremely disappointed by the court’s decision, which could do great harm to a hospital and its ability to serve its patients and community. Imposing new tax burdens on a hospital could force it to reduce services and increase health care costs – jeopardizing access to quality hospital services as well as the hospital’s financial viability.
* Congressman Mark Kirk said far more at that event earlier this week than previously reported.
As we’ve already discussed, media coverage has mostly focused on Kirk’s referring to President Obama as “this guy” when talking about how Obama could be made a one-termer and then his health insurance reform bill could be repealed…
“This is a good example of why Washington is broken. You have Congressmen like Mark Kirk who are more interested in disrespectful name calling than in going to work in Washington and getting things done like passing financial reform and healthcare reform.”
But as I wrote yesterday, the substance of his remarks are probably more important. Kirk began his presentation thusly…
“I’m Mark Kirk and I can’t wait to vote against the health care bill next week.”
That got some loud applause.
And he summed up this way…
“As your senator, I would lead the effort to repeal this bill.”
In between came the rationale…
“I will just say, if it goes through, there is one thing about the bill not commonly known, all of the pain of the bill is upfront, and all of the gain is later. The bill includes ten new federal taxes, and dramatic cuts for senior healthcare under Medicare between 2010 and 2014. The actual benefit of the bill doesn’t start until 2014.
“In between this time and then, is a presidential election. If we can win in the White House, and we’re on the way to making this guy a one termer.
“If we move to repeal this bill in 2013, all you’re doing is removing the pain and not a single American would have benefited from it yet.”
“As for health insurance reform, people across Illinois and the country will have greater security this year, once the President signs this law.
“Small businesses will receive tax credits to help them afford health coverage for their workers.
“People with pre-existing conditions will finally have access to coverage they can afford.
“The lifetime caps on coverage that insurance companies impose today will be banned, and they will no longer be allowed to throw people off their coverage, just because they become seriously ill.
“The gaps in Medicare prescription coverage will be filled in, saving seniors across our state hundreds of dollars our of pocket.
“So if Congressman Kirk wants to travel our state and explain why he wants to take all that away and put insurance company bureaucrats back in the driver’s seat, he should.
“It may titilate a roomful of partisans, but I don’t think it’s going to impress the people of Illinois,” Axelrod said.
* Kirk also provided yet another explanation for why he flip-flopped on the cap and trade issue…
“I am against the cap and trade bill because I am for increased employment in the state of Illinois.”
In the past, Kirk used national security and cost as reasons for voting for the bill…
Kirk was the only member of the GOP’s Midwest delegation to vote for the bill. He told the Daily Herald he backed the plan because he wants the U.S. to end its reliance on foreign oil, especially the fuel produced in unfriendly nations such as Iran.
“They are arming against us with money we send them,” Kirk said. “We (must) defund the terrorists and the unstable regimes.”
Kirk also said he discussed the proposal with officials from Midwest Generation, which operates a coal-burning power plant in Waukegan. To his surprise, they supported the legislation.
The energy- and building-code regulations included in the bill actually are less stringent than those already in place in Illinois, Kirk said.
But when he decided to run for Senate, he got such an earful that he changed his mind and came up with this excuse…
“I voted for it because it was in the narrow interest of my Congressional district. But as your representative… representing the entire state of Illinois, I would vote no on that bill coming up.”
Kirk also addressed the “flip-flop” charge the other day…
“If you’re going to change your view on an issue, do it up-front, do it in public, do it on YouTube.”
The problem with Kirk’s “openness” comment is that Kirk rarely allows reporters to cover his events. The YouTube video of the first instance of Kirk’s flip-flop was taken by somebody who fed it to the national Democrats. Reporters weren’t invited to the event. Lynn Sweet…
Kirk’s staffers refuse to release Kirk’s campaign or governmental schedules in order to discourage routine press coverage, so remarks Kirk makes on the stump are rare. During the primary campaign Kirk’s political operation declined–even after the fact–to release any details of where he went to speak or raise money.
You can listen to the full cap and trade Kirk audio by clicking here.
* In reply to all of this, Kirk is trying to change the subject back to Alexi Giannoulias. From a press release…
Online clock will track how long it takes Alexi Giannoulias to explain $1.2 million loan to Nick Giannis in 2002 despite criminal record;
Giannis arrested last week for bank fraud, contributed nearly $115,000 to Giannoulias campaigns, convicted on gun charge in 1996
* Related…
* Obama Skirts Illinois Visits So Far as Democrats Battle Scandal: “He is going to get tarred with the outcome in Illinois whether he comes here or not,” [David Yepsen] said. “It is going to be portrayed as a referendum on him.”
* There’s talk of bankruptcy in East St. Louis. With property tax revenues down and gaming proceeds from the local riverboat tanking, the city is facing a $5 million budget shortfall and is having a rough time meeting its payroll…
Two councilmen said the city may be looking at filing for bankruptcy after the fire and police pension boards rejected the city’s request to borrow about $1.5 million from the two boards, and the bargaining units within the police and fire departments are crying foul over contract violations. […]
“Our backs are against the wall,” [Councilmen Roy Mosley] said. “The police bargaining unit doesn’t want to negotiate with us. The firemen have worked with us and I thank them for doing that. We can’t pay what we don’t have. We’re not trying to take any money from anybody. We just don’t have any money to pay the union contracts that were negotiated when the city had money, and that’s the bottom line.”
Mosley said the city has had to pay out large chunks of money in lawsuits to, and because of, several police officers. […]
He said, however, that “Eighty percent of the city’s budget is the police and fire departments.”
Marion also said, “If you cut everybody out of the budget, it wouldn’t be nearly enough to close the $5 million budget gap the city has.”
I’ll have more on New Jersey’s budget situation next week because I just haven’t had much time to study it, but one of the proposals by the state’s new governor is to forbid all local governments from getting in over their heads by limiting their lee-way in future contract negotiations…
[Gov. Chris Christie] also is calling for new handcuffs on towns and school districts as they bargain with unions, to prohibit towns from awarding contracts with pay increases, including benefits, of more than 2.5 percent.
One seriously doubts that’ll happen here, and it probably won’t even happen in New Jersey. Still, it’s an idea that I don’t ever remember seeing before.
* Gov. Christie mentioned Illinois in his budget address, by the way. After I wrote a column about Christie, I ended up (temporarily, at least) on his press release list, so somebody out there apparently saw it. Here’s what Christie said in his address…
…Many of our fellow states are resorting to the techniques and tricks that have gotten New Jersey into so much trouble in the past.
In Illinois, they are raising income taxes and increasing borrowing to solve this problem. Sound familiar? Like New Jersey, they will see taxpayers leave and revenues fall. We have already been there and feel the sting of that failed policy today.
* As I reported to subscribersyesterday, the House Republicans submitted a long list of budget ideas to Gov. Quinn this week. The Southtown Star does a story today..
House Republican lawmakers have sent Gov. Pat Quinn recommendations on how state government might look to cut spending in the state’s current financial crisis.
The four-page letter, signed by 46 House Republicans, urges Quinn to look at fiscal reforms, Medicaid changes and job creation.
While there’s not an exact dollar amount specified in terms of proposed savings, the letter identifies how more than $5.3 billion could be used differently.
Sounds like a lot of money, right? There’s a big catch…
House GOP lawmakers proposed, among other things, that Quinn look to eliminate General Assembly scholarships, abolish the lieutenant governor’s office, impose a freeze on state hiring and salary increases and redirect $5 billion earmarked for capital projects for operations.
As I’ve already told subscribers, redirecting $5 billion of the capital plan to state operations simply cannot be done with the current revenue situation. Plus, lots of members didn’t even know that item was on the list. Oops.
OK, so now they’re down to about $300 million in savings. Much of that comes from postponing funding for high-speed rail.
Illinois Issues Statehouse bureau chief Jamey Dunn has a partial list over at Illinoize. Some of the ideas aren’t bad at all, but this is no real solution.
* Since the top item on this post deals with unions, let’s throw this one in here. As our videos showed yesterday, Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady was bashed on the union issue…
Speaking at a gathering of the Illinois Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Quinn told the pro-union crowd that Brady owned a construction company that only hired non-union workers, and Madigan said the Republican senator from Bloomington would work “to spread that gospel all over the state of Illinois.”
“We’re not going to have a middle class if we allow a lot of anti-labor, anti-union operators to get in politics and tear to shreds fundamental things we all agree on,” Quinn said. “He doesn’t believe in the minimum wage. He wants to abolish it.”
Jerry Clarke, campaign manager for Brady, issued a statement in response: “We’re not going to have a middle class if we continue the job-killing policies and insider politics of the Blagojevich-Quinn administration.”
* Related…
* A first step in cutting pensions: Finally, a bill to create a two-tier state pension system isn’t dead on arrival in the state Legislature. On Wednesday, a bill to provide significantly lower benefits for newly hired employees in two of five state pension systems, the ones covering legislators and judges, passed a House committee. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, expects the bill to pass the full House this week. No other major pension reform bill has gotten that far in the last two years.
* Con-fer-ence: An excuse to spend lavishly?: Southland school administrators and board members - many who are running financially strapped districts - dropped a bundle on meals, hotels and travel to an annual fall conference they insist makes them better leaders. Their big destination: downtown Chicago.
* Sneed: Dart, who is no stranger to controversy, is going to force inmates to wash their own prison uniforms . . . and eat breakfast at 4:30 a.m.!
* Dispute over Downstate horse track leads House to oust board
District officials admitted Wednesday that in the past, the highly competitive schools have let in students who didn’t even go through the normal application process, and there was no district oversight.
Now, principal picks will be reviewed by CPS and an outside auditor.
The affordable-housing program that subsidized the cost of the house’s land required she live in the home for at least four years.
Graham said she was unaware of that requirement until she was asked about it Wednesday morning. Later in the day, she agreed to reimburse the city for a portion of the subsidy, as required under the program when someone moves out too soon.
* Trade show organizers meet with McCormick Place’s labor leaders
A representative from the National Restaurant Assn. told the Tribune that the meeting included a “hodgepodge” of McCormick Place clients and was a chance for labor leaders to hear directly from customers.
The trial of Governor Rod Blagojevich will begin June 3, U.S. District Judge James Zagel decided Wednesday, turning down a request for a delay from Blagojevich’s attorneys.
Attorneys for Blagojevich had asked to push back his corruption trial to November.
U.S. District Judge James Zagel said the trial should go forward as planned on June 3. He called a pending U.S. Supreme Court decision that could redefine a statute that some of Blagojevich’s charges are based on a “red herring.’’
“I don’t see any reason to continue this case,’’ Zagel said. “This is more than a year to acquaint yourselves with the evidence.’’
One can’t help but wonder if he filed the motion to gin up publicity for his TV show. Usually, I’d never assume something like that, but this is Rod Blagojevich, after all.
* He didn’t really say a lot, but it’s rare to post video of a full speech by House Speaker Michael Madigan.
Madigan spoke to the IBEW this morning. He talked about the budget, the upcoming campaign and Sen. Bill Brady, among other things. Have a look…
* Gov. Quinn was also at the event, and answered questions from the press afterwards. He talked about several topics, including Sen. Brady’s refusal to detail his own budget plans. Have a gander…
Quinn backed off of his previous suggestion that lawmakers skip their upcoming break and stay in Springfield to work on his budget plan.
“I don’t think that’s going to be necessary,” Quinn told Daily Herald reporter Tim Magaw and others covering the meeting.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* Quinn’s speech to the union was peppered with slams on Sen. Brady and the Illinois Policy Institute’s budget proposal.
The governor noted that Brady wanted to abolish the minimum wage, opposed unions, and then predicted a “rough, hard tough battle” against him.
Quinn vowed a fight…
“I’m not a shrinking violet. I’ve been around awhile. I’ve been knocked down, just like folks I’m sure in your union have been knocked down. But I always get up. And that’s what we have to do in Illinois. We have to get up and fight.”
The governor also spoke about AT&T’s plan to rewrite the Telecommunications Act. He pledged to make sure that the IBEW was at the bargaining table and claimed that AT&T had made promises in the past that didn’t turn out to be true. Here’s Part One…
* Senate President John Cullerton also spoke to the union and answered a couple of questions from reporters. He talked about the governor’s suggestion that the General Assembly stick around through spring break if necessary to vote on his tax hike. He also talked briefly about the lt. governor situation. Watch…
* Remember back in February when the Champaign city council rejected a federal grant to fight underage drinking?
Ald. Tom Bruno questioned “the morality of accepting federal grant money for local purposes.” Mayor Jerry Schweighart said he wasn’t even sure if the city should accept a large federal broadband grant…
“We should be careful in accepting this [underage drinking] grant in a small amount or a large amount like $30 million that’s coming down the pipe.”
Well, the vote on that broadband grant was yesterday. And, guess what? The city council now loves them some federal cash…
Look out, Comcast. The city of Champaign says it’s ready to get into the broadband business.
In an anticipated vote, the Champaign City Council voted 7-1 to accept a $22.5 million federal grant to lay the infrastructure for a high-speed Internet network. The only dissenting vote came from Mayor Jerry Schweighart.
The last time I wrote about this, several commenters speculated that the city council was just using the “morality” of accepting federal grants to not so subtly cover for bar owners who serve a lot of U of I students.
Looks like they may have been right.
* Meanwhile, some folks in comments this week have questioned the legality of the release of video footage of Sen. Dan Duffy’s two red-light camera violations.
The footage was obtained through the state’s Freedom of Information Act, but now Schaumburg, which released the vids, is having second thoughts…
A Schaumburg attorney said the request for the videos was reviewed, nothing was found in the Freedom of Information Act to exempt the information, so it was turned over. However, upon further review of the red-light laws, assistant village attorney Rita Elsner, said Tuesday the policy would change.
“We will be updating our rules to make sure no others are released,” Elsner said.
Gov. Pat Quinn plans to sign legislation Wednesday to push Illinois’ primary election back to March. The 2 p.m. signing in the governor’s Capitol office ends the state’s experiment with a February primary after just two elections.
Gov. Quinn is remaining hush-hush about his choice for lieutenant governor this time — now that veterans chief/close friend Tammy Duckworth turned him down.
• Tipsville: But Sneed hears rumbles White House pressure is being put on Quinn, who favors a female sidekick, to select populist/Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool for the job.
• The mix: “Pat and Claypool have been joined at the hip for 30 years; Forrest was Quinn’s deputy when he was state treasurer,” said a top Dem source.
• The hitch: Would powerful state Dem party chief Mike Madigan want Claypool for the job?
Gov. Pat Quinn’s suggestion that lawmakers should vote on his proposed income tax increase before taking any breaks, including a two-week holiday this month, is “under review” by legislative leaders, House Speaker Michael Madigan said today.
“Our thought was that maybe Governor Quinn could use a nice break,” Madigan said after his proposed constitutional amendment requiring Illinois judges to be licensed attorneys for specified periods cleared its first step today. […]
But when asked how many lawmakers would have the same courage and vote in favor of the one percentage-point increase, Madigan only replied “We’ll find out.”
Yes, we will.
* Quote of the day goes to Gov. Quinn, talking about his proposed tax hike…
“For those who say we’re bluffing, where’s the billion dollars coming from? It’s not gonna come from heaven. We’ve got to find ways to replace that revenue,” said Quinn.
* And the SJ-R appeared to walk back an editorial from earlier this week blasting CMS for approving the Dept. of Aging’s expensive office consolidation. Here’s what they said Sunday…
So forgive us if we don’t take CMS at its word that spending $532,000 a year rather than staying at a state-owned building will be better for taxpayers. All we see is money being spent in a year when thousands of teachers may get pink slips because of state budget troubles. It’s going to be a while before we can treat the word “efficiency” as something other than a euphemism.
…we urge restraint for those inclined to get political mileage out of this incident. Taken to its extreme, the DOA lease deal is made-to-order ammunition for those who believe Illinois can climb out of its fiscal hole without any more money coming in. Thus far, Sen. Bill Brady, the Republican candidate for governor, is using this extreme as the foundation of his campaign.
To that camp, we offer this math lesson: Illinois needs to find $13 billion. There are 1,000 millions in a billion. Therefore, it will take roughly 24,000 Department on Aging lease deals to close the gap.
* Governor can balance budget in three years, conservative panel says: And the group proposed abolishing the Illinois Arts Alliance — headed by Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan’s wife, Shirley. That would save $7.6 million.
* Think tank proposes no-tax increase budget: “If (DCEO) was good at creating jobs, this state wouldn’t rank 48th out of 50 states in creating jobs over the last 10 years,” he said at a Statehouse press conference. “So it’s failing, and on that measure alone we think it should be eliminated.”
* Ag Supporters: Don’t Cut Funding: “The budget is six-tenths of one percent that goes to ag spending and ag programs. When they talk about across-the-board cuts, we’ve already (given) our share,” he said.
* Mental health service providers on Quinn’s chopping block
* Jeffrey Gomer: Illinois’ tax burden not that bad
* Unexpected vote leads to massive pay cut in East St. Louis
* Thomson prison sale inches forward: Documents released Tuesday show the administration wants to award a $30,000, no-bid contract to a Carroll County appraisal service as part of the price-setting process for the mostly dormant facility….In addition to ordering the appraisal, the Quinn administration earlier sent a letter to the 80 workers who oversee inmates at a minimum-security work camp at the prison. That letter shows that the state plans to close the facility by April 30.
Appearing before a Republican audience in the Chicago suburbs Friday, Rep. Mark Kirk, the GOP nominee for Senate, sought to rally the partisan crowd with language about President Obama that may not sit well with some Illinois voters.
“We are on the way to making this guy a one-termer,” Kirk said of Obama at a Republican dinner in Winnetka, according to audio obtained by POLITICO. The congressman was speaking in the context of how, with a Republican president, the GOP may be able to repeal healthcare legislation before much it goes into effect.
Aside from calling the president “this guy,” Kirk’s prediction of an Obama re-election defeat in 2012 puts him out of step with how most residents of the state feel about their own president.
“This guy?” “One-termer?” Dumb — even if the context of the remark was that a Republican president might be able to repeal Obama care and other things before they’re in effect long.
Rasmussen’s latest poll had Obama with a 56 percent job approval rating - far above where Rasmussen has the rest of the country.
And it’s not just Kirk’s language, it’s what he was saying. Repealing the healthcare legislation before it’s enacted is fine with the base, but just over half of Illinoisans told Rasmussen recently that they support the plan. Again, well above support levels Rasmussen reports for the rest of the nation.
* Both US Senate candidates issued press releases in the past twelve hours or so. From Alexi Giannoulias…
“We saw [yesterday] yet another disturbing sign that we have a long, hard road ahead of us when it comes to our economic recovery. People are really hurting right now, and with Illinois’ unemployment rate above 12 percent, we can’t afford to look to the broken economic policies of the past. It’s clear that we need a fresh voice in the Senate who will work for Illinois’ families and support policies that will create new, good jobs and help our businesses grow. I’m the only candidate in this race to put forward a comprehensive economic plan that would create jobs and get our economy growing again.”
Kirk…
The Kirk for Senate campaign today urged Illinois Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias to answer questions regarding a $1.2 million loan made to Nick Giannis, the Giannoulias campaign supporter arrested last week on bank fraud charges. The campaign also renewed its 12-day old request that Giannoulias and Broadway Bank release all documents related to loans and credit extended to organized crime figure Michael “Jaws” Giorango.
That’s pretty much how this campaign is gonna go.
…Adding… From the Giannoulias campaign…
“I was disappointed in Republican Congressman Mark Kirk’s disrespectful remarks referring to our commander-in-chief as ‘this guy’ and gleefully admitting he is working with Republicans to obstruct meaningful reform. He should apologize and get to work immediately with our President to tackle the enormous challenges we face. Illinois voters have a clear choice in this campaign: while President Obama and I will fight hard to move this country forward, Mark Kirk is just another typical Washington insider who would clearly rather stand with the corporate special interests and obstruct progress than get things done.”
* AIP endorses Joe Bell of Illinois for the United States Senate: America’s Independent Party affiliates, in Illinois and across America, enthusiastically endorse the 2010 candidacy of Independent Joe Bell for the United States Senate from the great State of Illinois!
[Gov. Pat Quinn] suggested lawmakers should skip their upcoming spring break to vote on his tax increase.
I hope he’s not thinking of screwing with my spring break with a special session. Frankly, I don’t care if legislators are inconvenienced, but I have plans, and they don’t include Springfield.
“I really feel the legislature shouldn’t take a break, a holiday, until they vote on this tax increase,” said Quinn during an appearance at Morton Community College in Cicero. “I think when you’re in a crisis, members of the legislature have to have an urgent sense of duty and an urgent sense of acting.”
The governor, however, stopped short of saying he would call a special session to keep lawmakers at the Capitol the last week of March and first week of April.
Women leaders from across the state called on Gov. Pat Quinn and legislative leaders today to approve a tax increase that would continue services supported by the state.
The group provided a letter sent to the leaders with more than 200 signatures from women politicians and organization leaders.
The plan comes from the Illinois Policy Institute, which is technically nonpartisan but whose views on economic matters bear a close resemblance to those of Bill Brady, the GOP nominee for governor.
In essence, it goes beyond cuts in state employee pensions and Medicaid to focus on a wide and deep range of cuts throughout every level of state government — all $3.7 billion worth of them designed to make the state live within its existing income, as the group puts it.
Zeroing out programs like local government aid, Advanced Placement, agricultural education, foreign language education, Illinois National Guard and Naval Militia scholarships, home delivered meals to seniors, the Guardianship and Advocacy Commission, and slashing things like the child death review teams at DCFS and cutting Circuit Breaker by 75 percent won’t exactly be politically feasible.
Less…
For instance, asserting that the average state worker makes 15.7% more a year than those in the private sector, the institute proposes to save $900 million by cutting labor costs. Exactly how it would do that isn’t certain, since the state’s workforce is near 20-year lows now and employee unions have been unwilling to open existing contracts.
And less…
Education would get $300 million less than Mr. Quinn proposed, which would put schools $1.6 billion below this year’s level at a time when some districts already are laying off staff. Mr. Tillman responds that the institute would cut spending on extraneous items like preschool, principal mentoring and higher education, to focus the state’s education money on in-classroom work in grade and high schools.
The biggest single cut — more than $2.7 billion — would be in “health and human services.” Some of that is lower salaries for state workers, but much of it is less money for outside grants to community groups, service agencies and the like.
We just went through a huge debate in this state about funding human service groups, led by Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno. I’m sure Radogno won’t be climbing on board any time soon.
…Also… Regarding higher education, from the report…
Students are in the best position to make prudent decisions over their financial and academic futures. As such it was a priority to maintain funding for the Monetary Award Program (MAP), which is a tuition assistance program that enables students of limited means to better afford college. Insofar as reductions were made to direct institutional funding for the state’s four-year universities, community colleges, and support agencies, it was done so in order to allocate higher levels of support for the MAP grant program, which assists students attending all institutions of higher learning in Illinois.
They propose bumping up MAP grants by about $70 million, but cut the University of Illinois’ budget alone by almost $200 million. Not quite an exact tradeoff here.
* My deepest sympathies to the family and many friends of Michael Rosenquist. Michael died suddenly this week after surgery. He was an attorney with the Legislative Reference Bureau for the past three years. You can sign his guest book by clicking here.
Visitation Wednesday 3 to 9 p.m. at Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home, 203 S. Marion St., Oak Park. Prayers Thursday 9:15 A.M. to St. Luke Church, 528 Lathrop Av., River Forest for Mass at 10 A.M.
Interment Queen of Heaven Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, memorials to: American Diabetes Association (diabetes.org) or National MS Society, Greater Illinois Chapter (msillinois.org) are appreciated. Funeral info: 708-383-3191.
Myers announced in a news release Monday that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He says he will undergo testing in the coming weeks to determine the best method of treatment.
The 62-year-old Republican from Colchester has been in the Illinois House since 1995.
Myers says he will continue his work in the House but might have to miss some legislative session days in Springfield because of his treatment.
Myers is a quiet, can-do legislator who has always had the ability to work with both sides of the aisle. I’d just like to add my fervent hopes for quick and totally complete recovery.
* Progress Illinois appears a bit bummed out by yesterday’s state central committee meeting…
As you may remember, back in early February the Scott Lee Cohen debacle spurred a refreshing amount of criticism regarding House Speaker Michael Madigan’s longstanding reign as chairman of the Democratic Party of Illinois — a tenure that has been marked by a laser-like focus on his House majority and complete neglect of federal races. The Sun-Times’ Lynn Sweet even wrote that he had done “an awful job” as party chairman. There was even some hope that some Democratic committeemen would put up a fight when it came time to consider his reelection this spring.
Political Rule Number One: The mushrooms always complain and moan, but then they always get in line. This rule most certainly applies to the Illinois House and, apparently, the state central committee.
* Anyway, after he was reelected, Madigan telegraphed some worries about the lt. governor selection process…
Asked later how confident he is about the lieutenant governor selection process, Madigan said, “I am not confident at all.”
That lack of confidence wasn’t really explained in the article. Madigan, however, went on to spin the interest in the vacancy as a positive for the party…
“We’ve been surprised by the number of applicants, but I think that it’s a good message to the Republicans that there’s a high level of interest in the Democratic Party of Illinois,” Madigan said. “At the end of the day, the process will be open, transparent, and I think that the governor and the Democratic Party of Illinois will be together.”
Central committeeman Billy Marovitz had a good question…
If a last-minute candidate becomes the nominee, Marovitz said, “It’s going to make all of us look really foolish.”
“There needs to be a chance for all of us to question the person, not just have the person foisted upon us,” he said.
Madigan responded that he would keep the nominations open. “I don’t plan to restrict my options.”
Quinn has said since the debacle with Scott Lee Cohen — which left the Democrats without a lieutenant governor candidate – that he supports keeping the position. However, the governor zeroed out the office budget for the state’s number two spot in his current spending plan. […]
Kelly Kraft with the governor’s office cautioned not to read too much into that.
“We’re going to let the newly appointed, or newly elected, come in and frame his or her own budget.”
The budget does contain a salary for the post of lieutenant governor, as required by the state Constitution and set by a state compensation review board. Whoever voters elect will receive an annual salary of $139,200 for fiscal year 2011.
Two of the candidates who want to become the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor said they’d hope to have the ability to handle their own office budget. […]
Kraft said Quinn will restore the office budget for the second-in-command after the Nov. 2 election.
“He will come into veto session in November and he will ask for a supplemental, then there will be a vote.”
* In other Madigan-related news, Republican Cook County Board President nominee Roger Keats tries to play connect the dots…
Keats outlined his main campaign strategy by trying to tie Preckwinkle to Democratic Party leaders House Speaker Michael Madigan and Board of Review Commissioner Joseph Berrios. Keats pointed to Madigan’s legal side business arguing appeals on county assessments as the “epicenter of pay-to-play politics,” adding, “This is all with the help of his pal, Mr. Pay-to-Play Jr., Joe Berrios.”
Keats cited how Preckwinkle as a ward committeeman nominated Berrios in his bid to remain chairman of the Cook County Democratic Central Committee
So, Preckwinkle nominated Berrios and that means she’s totally in league with Madigan. OK. Next?
* As we discussed yesterday, one of the leading proponents of banning red-light cameras was called out yesterday for not telling the truth about his own red-light ticket. Senate President John Cullerton showed video of Sen. Dan Duffy clearly running a red light. Duffy responded…
“That was an interesting play there. Obviously the president of the Senate and the red-light camera companies are doing everything they can to intimidate me,” said Duffy, who said he won’t stop trying to abolish red-light cameras, even though a Senate panel rejected the idea Monday.
Duffy agreed he deserved a ticket and said Monday that he never claimed otherwise and questioned why, other than politics, the Senate Democrats would air his video.
“I’ve also gotten speeding tickets before. I didn’t say we should repeal all speed limits in the state of Illinois,” he said. “I don’t know why this is there as an example. This is obviously trying to target me. Why would, out of all people, would they bring my ticket up and show my film?”
Duffy said he wrongly received a ticket from a red-light camera in Schaumburg. He said he stopped behind the line and inched forward before making a turn because a utility box obstructed his view. He said he wanted to fight the ticket but said it would have cost more than $1,000 to fight the $100 ticket.”
He’s been telling reporters the same story for at least a month now.
* Anyway, as I told subscribers this morning, Duffy didn’t just get one red-light ticket. He got two. Here’s the video of the first offense for comparative purposes…
* The Senate Republicans are questioning whether the use of the video is legal. From an e-mail…
(625 ILCS 5/11‑208.6)
(g) Recorded images made by an automatic traffic law enforcement system are confidential and shall be made available only to the alleged violator and governmental and law enforcement agencies for purposes of adjudicating a violation of this Section, for statistical purposes, or for other governmental purposes. Any recorded image evidencing a violation of this Section, however, may be admissible in any proceeding resulting from the issuance of the citation.
When asked if the use of enforcement video from an individual’s red light camera ticket was legal, Duffy replied, “My staff is researching that.”
Cullerton’s staff obtained the video of a vehicle registered to Duffy rolling through a right on red turn lane in Schaumburg back in early 2009, via a Freedom of Information Act request.
“It is legal if it is used for legal proceedings or government proceedings,” explained Rikeesha Phelon, spokesperson for Cullerton’s office. “Duffy has been very public about his opposition to red light cameras. That’s why we used this video.”
* Make restaurants display calorie counts?: The bill, sponsored by Deborah Mell (D-Chicago), would require fast-food chains to include calorie amounts for menus posted at counters and drive-through lanes. Her push comes as at least one national chain, Panera Bread, began putting calorie totals on its menu boards.
* Speed limit talk another example of poor planning: Consider current discussion of increasing speed limits to 70 mph. Why wasn’t this brought up months ago when lawmakers debated increasing truck speed limits to 65 mph to match cars?
A year after winning “Celebrity Apprentice,” Joan Rivers went on the show as a guest this week. After spending time with this year’s controversial competitor, Rod Blagojevich, she tells me she was completely underwhelmed.
“He’s an idiot,” she says of the indicted former governor of Illinois. “When you talk to him for 10 minutes, you go, ‘How did this man get elected?’
“Come on, Chicago, didn’t anyone TALK to him?”
Joan Rivers is now my hero.
* In real news, federal prosecutors yesterday opposed Blagojevich’s motion to delay his trial until November…
In their filing Monday, prosecutors contended that neither argument by the defense is persuasive, “particularly in light of the strong public interest in resolving this case as expeditiously as possible.” […]
“The charges in this case allege that the defendant engaged in a longstanding and pervasive abuse of his power as the governor of the state of Illinois,” the prosecution said. “The defendant has repeatedly and publicly challenged the legitimacy of the charges against him. As a result, the public has a strong interest in the expeditious resolution of the charges.”
Prosecutors argued that no matter how the Supreme Court rules on the “honest services” law, the underlying evidence against the former governor would remain the same at trial. […]
Prosecutors also dismissed the defense claim that it has been overwhelmed with evidence from the prosecution. By the time the trial would begin in early June, the defense would have had months to review all the material, they said.
He’s asked for testimony from Mayor Daley and up to 10 Chicago aldermen. But politically-connected developer Calvin Boender, on trial for bribing a city alderman to get a zoning chane for his West Side development, sent out a subpoena to an unlikely recipient: Rod Blagojevich.
The former governor received the subpoena two weeks ago, one of his lawyers said.
But Blago won’t be taking the witness stand.
His lawyers opposed the subpoena, saying the indicted ex-governor and Boender don’t know each other.
The defense agreed to withdraw it [yesterday] morning, said Blagojevich attorney Sheldon Sorosky.
Mark Brown is taking Boender’s case much more seriously…
City Hall apparently finds the Boender trial a big yawn, too, especially now that his lawyers have dropped their bid to force Mayor Daley to testify. How else to explain Daley’s announcement that he had named state Rep. Deborah Graham to replace Carothers as alderman?
After going through the motions of taking resumes on the city Web site, Daley picked someone who wouldn’t have been state representative if Carothers hadn’t decided to pull out all the stops to get her elected in 2002, with some help from Carothers’ wholly owned subsidiary in the 37th Ward — Ald. Emma Mitts.
I suppose this increases the likelihood we can look forward to the time when the by-then formerly incarcerated Carothers will show up as an adviser on either Mitts’ or Graham’s political payroll in the same way Carothers’ formerly incarcerated father William was always a mainstay on his.
We replaced typewriters with computers faster than we can change Chicago’s machine politics.
That’s pretty unfair to Rep. Graham. While a Carothers ally, she wasn’t exactly owned by him. He was a hugely powerful force in that region, and nobody could have been elected without cutting a deal. Sen. Don Harmon cut his own Carothers deal in the 2002 campaign, but we haven’t seen him publicly flogged lately. And for good reason. The same ought to go for Graham, as far as I can tell.
* Related…
* Not much of a horse race: Blagojevich, ‘Apprentice’ less appealing to nation’s TV viewers than ‘Boss’ at the track
With a $13 billion budget deficit looming, the state is forging ahead with a plan to move employees of the Department on Aging from their free digs in two state-owned buildings to a joint office in a privately owned building that will cost $530,000 a year in rent.
House Republicans tried to put the brakes on the move last week. Their resolution called for the Department of Central Management Services to re-evaluate the lease and look for cheaper options. All but five Democrats voted to lock the measure in the Rules Committee.
Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget, meanwhile, calls for a 6.5 percent cut for the Department on Aging next year. Social service programs that help the elderly already are being slashed and stiffed. Common sense says this is a move that can wait.
OK, first of all, the House GOP put forth a resolution, not a bill. There’s a big difference. A resolution has no legal weight. You can’t “put the brakes” on something with a resolution. Here’s the summary…
Urges the Departments on Aging and Central Management Services to work with the Procurement Policy Board to review current leases as well as existing space in State facilities to find the solution that imposes the smallest burden on Illinois taxpayers in this time of budget challenge.
The resolution basically did nothing at all, except embarrass the Democrats for blocking it.
The Quinn administration has suspended the state Department on Aging’s proposed move into leased office space while officials review the plan. […]
“The Department on Aging’s relocation out of the Herndon building has been suspended to allow for additional review of the situation,” CMS spokeswoman Alka Nayyar said in an e-mailed message.
“CMS will continue to work with the Department on Aging, the Secretary of State and all other involved agencies to help ensure that the health and safety of employees remains a top priority while working to maximize efficiencies.”
Gov. Pat Quinn won’t say if he has a plan to avoid deep education cuts if lawmakers resist his call to raise the state income tax.
Quinn insisted Monday he’s optimistic lawmakers will do what he wants so the state doesn’t have to cut $1.3 billion from education. He outlined the tax increase in his budget address last week, and he says he’s talking to lawmakers to get them on his side.
I doubt he has a fall-back option yet. The lack of a “Plan B” was one of Dan Hynes’ criticisms about Quinn’s absence of leadership last year, and it’s likely to be recycled by Sen. Bill Brady.
* Steve Huntley’s column today succinctly sums up why the “free rides for seniors” is such a volatile political issue…
Although I had several times criticized pandering politician Rod Blagojevich’s free CTA rides for seniors, in all honesty I have to say my first reaction to the news the state House of Representatives had voted down the freebie was — They want to take away my free ride!
For a moment I had succumbed to the entitlement mentality that government programs inspire. I’ve been riding Metra, the CTA and Pace for free for a year, and by golly, that “right” is mine and don’t you politicians in the Legislature dare take it away.
There is no such thing as a free ride. Somebody has to pay for it, taxpayers through a subsidy or other riders through higher fares. Or the service must be reduced. The CTA has had to cut service, some of it because of Blagojevich’s give-away. My free ride might not seem such a bargain if I end up waiting longer for a bus in Chicago’s bone-chilling winters.
I’ve known Steve for a long time. He was my column editor for years and I loved the guy because he is so very smart. But the hard truth is that a whole lot of voters just don’t continue his thought process, or won’t allow themselves to do so. Instead, they stop at Steve’s first impression: “They want to take away my free ride!”
There’s an old saying in politics: Candidates who rely on voters to think usually lose.
* Related…
* Full-time School for Only Half the Kids at St. Charles: In other words, the State of Illinois locks up teenagers and then fails to provide them with even a basic education. It’s a situation that has existed for years.
* Facing New Rules, Elections Board’s Budget May Get Slashed: The Illinois State Board of Elections picked up a bunch of new responsibilities this past year. But Governor Pat Quinn is asking the legislature to give the board less than half the money it requested.
Hundreds of teaching jobs also could be at risk. Full-day kindergarten, magnet schools, gifted programs, early childhood programs and bilingual education also would take a hit under the plan that outlines $301 million in school-based trims and $398 million in central office and citywide cuts.
Mayor Daley is already reeling from a personal low 35 percent approval rating tied to the parking meter mess, City Hall corruption scandals and Chicago’s first-round Olympic flame-out.
Now, a coalition of liberal-leaning civic groups is piling on — by giving the mayor a “D” for job performance.
Developing Government Accountability to the People (DGAP) accused the mayor of “mortgaging the future” by selling off Chicago parking meters and draining most of the $1.15 billion windfall to fill a massive budget shortfall.
Mayor Daley said Monday he’s willing to let Chicago businesses substitute plastic fences for more costly wrought-iron, but he’s not about to declare a blanket moratorium on Chicago’s landscaping ordinance.
* Video archives of City Council meetings available on clerk’s website
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart — who made international headlines in 2008 when he temporarily stopped evicting tenants in foreclosed buildings — was fined $1,400 Monday over a delay in carrying out a 2009 eviction order.
Just as most of the massive rehab of the Illinois tollway system ends, construction on a small segment, the Edens Spur, threatens to snarl the commute for thousands of motorists and handcuff Chicagoans’ escape to Wisconsin this summer.
* Cabbies working longer hours and facing increased risks, experts say
In a recent survey conducted by a researcher with the University of Illinois at Chicago, more than one-fifth of Chicago-area drivers said they had been attacked or threatened with violence by a passenger at least once in their careers. However, only half of them said they had reported the attack to police.
“It’s hard for these towns to adjust to the fact that gangs are everywhere,” said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. “It’s not a stigma against any town, because they’re everywhere.”
He said that his gang-intelligence officers have detected increased activity in pockets of Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Arlington Heights because of an influx of rival gang members.
Tuesday, Mar 16, 2010 - Posted by Capitol Fax Blog Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
There is a critical need to update Illinois’ 25-year old, outdated Telecommunications Act this year, according to a recent study commissioned by the Illinois Technology Partnership, Illinois State Black Chamber of Commerce and Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and conducted by the Discovery Institute.
Results showed revamping the state’s telecom policy is necessary to sustain investment in broadband which, according to one estimate, would create or save 105,622 jobs. Other projected benefits would include:
· $6.2 billion in economic impact annually from increased broadband availability.
· $28 million in average health care savings
· More than $4 billion in direct annual income growth.
Our telecommunications landscape is rapidly changing, but our state’s policies have failed to keep pace.
During a time Illinois is experiencing record levels of unemployment, modernizing policies like the Telecommunication Act that will spur investment and job creation in Illinois at no cost to taxpayers should be the state’s top priority.
Our policies need to encourage investment in broadband networks that companies and consumers want and need. For more information and to view the entire study, visit iltechpartner.org.
* Gov. Pat Quinn appeared on Chicago Tonight last night and was grilled pretty hard by hosts Phil Ponce and Carol Marin on a wide range of topics. It’s a must-watch…
* Check out our Press Release of the Day from the Illinois State Rifle Association…
Press Release - Bill That Would Effectively Prohibit African Americans and Hispanics From Buying Guns Advances in the Illinois General Assembly
Law-abiding African Americans and Hispanics would take it on the chin under a bill now moving through the Illinois General Assembly. Sponsored by Rep. Harry Osterman (D-14), HB6123 would prohibit any person or entity from selling a firearm to a so-called “street gang member.” This prohibition applies even if the individual has passed a Brady Law FBI background check. Making a prohibited sale would result in Class 1 felony charges and possible jail time for the seller. Although the ISRA supports genuine efforts to curb criminal violence, the organization is strongly opposed to HB6123 as the bill’s provisions are arbitrary and pose an unreasonable intrusion on the rights of law-abiding Illinois citizens.
“HB6123 promotes racial profiling at its worst,” commented ISRA Executive Director, Richard Pearson. “Popular culture has branded urban minorities with the ‘gangsta’ stereotype that is pervasive well beyond the confines of actual criminal enterprises. Today’s fashion, music, slang and lifestyle are all heavily influenced by the urban experience. Given that the provisions of HB6123 establish no test for determining ’street gang’ membership, and given the harsh penalties for violating the proposed law, it is understandable that retailers would shy away from selling firearms to persons whose speech, dress, mannerisms, or taste in music reflect the urban lifestyle.” […]
“The bottom line is this,” said Pearson. “If HB6123 is passed into law, the calendar on race-relations will be turned back 70 years and there will not be a gun shop in the state that will sell a firearm to an African American or Hispanic person. If that’s Rep. Osterman’s intent, then he has a lot of explaining to do.”
[A person commits the offense of unlawful sale of firearms when he or she knowingly does any of the following:]
Knowingly sells or gives any firearm to any person who is a street gang member. For purposes to this paragraph: “street gang member” has the meaning ascribed to the term “street gang member” in Section 10 of the Illinois Streetgang Terrorism Omnibus Prevention Act.
“Streetgang member” or “gang member” means any person who actually and in fact belongs to a gang, and any person who knowingly acts in the capacity of an agent for or accessory to, or is legally accountable for, or voluntarily associates himself with a course or pattern of gang‑related criminal activity, whether in a preparatory, executory, or cover‑up phase of any activity, or who knowingly performs, aids, or abets any such activity.
This has nothing to do with baggy pants or civil rights.
* On a totally unrelated note, rememberthis from the other day about how Gov. Pat Quinn had apparently chosen the wrong school district to make the case for his education tax hike? Springfield’s superintendent had this to say…
Walter Milton, Springfield’s schools superintendent, said his district could prevent layoffs next year even if Quinn’s proposed education cuts go through.
Milton said the Springfield district averages about 100 new teachers each year to keep classroom sizes down, but that likely would fall to 30 or 40 if the state cuts school funding. The state also owes the district about $6 million in payments, though Milton said the district has been able to plug the hole from excess funds elsewhere.
The Springfield School District has started receiving nearly $15 million in federal economic stimulus funds. But most of the highly regulated money won’t help the district with its $8 million budget deficit or avert the need to eliminate 56 teaching positions and other proposed cuts next year.
Roughly $6 million, 40 percent of the $14.7 million in federal money, covers state government’s unmet or reduced obligations to Springfield schools this year.
“It is not extra money. It’s how the state is using the money they receive from the feds to pay their bills,” wrote Springfield schools business director Agnes Nunn in an e-mail.
So, he’s cutting 56 teaching positions next year and it appears directly related to the state. And he had to have known that when he made that comment to the media.
Monday, Mar 15, 2010 - Posted by Capitol Fax Blog Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Modern Tech Policies Create and Save Jobs in Illinois
From car phones to cell phones to smart phones and from floppy disks to CD-ROMS to cloud computing, technology is changing rapidly and public policy must keep pace. The state must encourage investment in new and emerging technologies and foster growth and innovation within this sector that is expected to create one million new jobs over the next five years. Illinois has let important legislation, such as the Telecommunications Act, that significantly impacts job creation fall out-of- date.
In such a quickly evolving industry, policies should be created to promote advancements in new and emerging technologies. At the same time, legacy regulations that stifle important investment and innovation in this growing sector should be removed. If we do not change, Illinois runs the risk of losing companies and jobs to states that have already taken steps to create an environment where start-ups can grow and existing companies can sustain. For more information, visit iltechpartner.org/resource-center and check out the video of our recent press conference.
* As you may know by now, GOP state Sen. Dan Duffy has been pushing hard to rid the state of red light cameras. During today’s meeting of the Senate Transportation Committee, Senate President John Cullerton offered up a compromise amendment on the issue which Duffy opposed.
The big news, though, was that Cullerton revealed that Sen. Duffy had been hit with a red light ticket himself [which Duffy clearly deserved, but previously claimed he didn’t]. Cullerton then showed video of the violation. According to notes from my intern Dan Weber, Cullerton’s staff was able to get the video online.
…Adding… This, by the way, is how a lot of legislation begins. A legislator has a bad experience and believes there oughtta be a law. I can certainly relate to Duffy’s anger, even though I’ve not yet been hit with a red light ticket, but you’d think he’d have disclosed the ticket earlier.
…Adding more… Oops. Duffy did disclose the ticket. Trouble is, he said he stopped when the video clearly shows he rolled right through…
Duffy said he wrongly received a ticket from a red-light camera in Schaumburg. He said he stopped behind the line and inched forward before making a turn because a utility box obstructed his view. He said he wanted to fight the ticket but said it would have cost more than $1,000 to fight the $100 ticket.”
Ummm… Huh? If you watch the video, not only did Duffy breeze through the light, but the utility box appears to be on his right, which wouldn’t have obstructed his view of oncoming traffic from his left. And if a different utility box did obstruct his view, that was one very unsafe roll-through.
…Adding still more… President Cullerton dodge a question today about the staff shakeup at the Department of Corrections. Watch…
“Almost all scandals, I think, result not from the invention of new evils, but from the imposition of new ethical standards.” – Bill James, The New Historical Baseball Abstract
Notice he said “almost.” Rod Blagojevich’s alleged misdeeds don’t really fit. [Via.]
* The DSCC has a new Internet ad that blasts Mark Kirk for favoring the big banks. It’s pretty much a preview of the fall campaign. Rate it…
* A video of Bill Brady’s “unity rally” in DuPage County features this remark at the 32-second mark…
“Most of you know that I’m not a career politician.”
Brady was first elected to the House in 1992 - eighteen years ago.
Adam Andrzejewski said in his endorsement of Brady that the state hasn’t created a job since 1997. Watch it.
* Today’s graph from Moody’s Economy.com shows how fast or slow various metro area real estate prices are expected to rebound. Click the pic for a better look. Our area isn’t doing so bad in comparison to Florida and California, but it could be better…
We are asking all IEA members to stand in solidarity with our laid-off members on Friday, March 19th by wearing pink. We also invite administrators, parents and community members to join us, in recognition of the effect that these losses will have on the quality of education our state.
The two gubernatorial candidates, Gov. Pat Quinn and Sen. Bill Brady, will be speaking at the IEA Annual Representative Assembly (RA) on March 19 in Rosemont. We anticipate there will be extensive media coverage of the event. With our RA delegates in pink, we will show the state the IEA commitment to fair funding, and the impact that funding cuts will have on the goal to build a quality education system and economy in the state.
* This video is kinda cool, unless all the honking is right outside your back door on Lake Springfield. Your afternoon Zen…
* Whether you could tolerate watching it or not, do you think Rod Blagojevich’s appearance on that Donald Trump show is helping or hurting him with the jury pool? Explain.
* Phil Kadner lays out where he thinks the governor’s proposed tax hike is going…
There is a hole in the state budget of about $13 billion.
But Quinn doesn’t have to cut the education budget.
He could cut anywhere he wants, including the jobs of all of his staff members.
However, in this game of pretend, we have to believe that the cuts must come from education, because that’s going to get a lot of people angry.
Teachers are already being notified that they might not have jobs next year.
The more people who are mad, the greater the pressure on legislators to pass a tax increase. That’s how democracy is supposed to work.
Close your eyes now, click your heels together and say, “I’m not in Illinois any more.”
Because public pressure doesn’t work in Springfield.
The lawmakers will ignore the governor, put together their own spending plan and pass a six-month budget to get through November.
Um, Phil, if public pressure didn’t work in Springfield, they’d double the income tax rate. Just saying, man. Also, Kadner skipped over the tax hike for education in the late 1980s in his history of education funding.
We’re not budget experts. We don’t know if the Quinn tax-increase plan is the best way to go. It does seem unlikely a state with a total payroll of around $3 billion is going to simply cut its way into the black.
What we do know is that we are sick of politics trumping policy; incumbency trumping ideals; partisanship trumping planning.
There was a time, at least it seems, when we elected people to make hard decisions, to lead.
But something has changed. Everyone wants everything, but no one wants to pay for it … or even step forward and say no. As polling by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute shows, Illinoisans overwhelmingly favor cuts in state spending. But asked to identify what they’d accept in cuts, the numbers just don’t add up.
Illinois is in a sorry state. Some would say it is a sorry state.
Trouble is, you can’t lead if nobody will follow, and it’s pretty tough to lead if even the editorial boards with tons of state facilities, a huge university and a big community college in their coverage area are too timid to step up. Leadership isn’t just top down. While I am on record numerous times arguing for a tax hike, I can easily see why so few would want to vote for it this year.
The hard truth is that every major tax hike passed in this state for the past 40 years has been done in a bipartisan manner. Every, single one. If the minority party won’t play ball, then the issue becomes simply too hot to deal with for the majority. It’s as simple as that.
Several Republicans voted for the driver fee increases to fund the capital bill last year, and you barely hear a word about that these days. The reason is because it was passed on a bipartisan vote. Refusing to vote for an income tax hike on their own may make the Democrats cowards in some eyes, but to them they’re just being politically smart. Only people with some sort of mental issues want to commit suicide.
* The Southtown Star continues in this vein, sputtering about do-nothing legislators while the budget burns…
Sen. Maggie Crotty recently passed a vital bill - regulating funeral processions. A current Illinois ban on the slaughter of horses for human consumption would be lifted under a proposal from Rep. Jim Sacia. Another measure would allow active duty soldiers home on leave to hunt or fish without a license under a proposal by Rep. Jack Franks. Illinoisians under the age of 18 would be prohibited from buying caffeinated pop and other drinks containing taurine or guarana under a measure proposed by Rep. Louis Arroyo.
If the Dems have lost the Southtown, they are in big trouble.
* My syndicated newspaper column looks at the budget and ahead at November. The last section of the piece is something we haven’t really talked about here..
Like all of the budgets proposed by governors in the past few years, Gov. Pat Quinn’s spending outline last week was an almost complete fantasy. It has pretty much zero chance of surviving intact and will have to be tossed out and substantially reworked before the session ends.
Unless the school interests can pull off a legislative miracle during an anti-incumbent election year, Quinn’s proposed one percentage point tax increase to prevent $1.3 billion in school funding cuts and pay another $1.5 billion in overdue bills to schools and universities is deader than a rock on a stump. House Speaker Michael Madigan made that pretty darned clear right after the speech.
Asked what he would do if the Republicans refused to cooperate on the budget, Madigan said his Democratic majority would have to go it alone. Asked if that meant he’d go it alone on a tax hike, he pointedly said, “No.”
A few minutes later, appearing on public television’s “Illinois Lawmakers” program, Madigan said, “Let’s be straightforward about this. The people of America, the people of Illinois, they don’t want tax increases. They’re hurting.”
Madigan then praised the governor for having the courage to propose a tax hike in this climate, but quickly added: “That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.”
Shortly afterward, Senate President John Cullerton made it crystal clear that his chamber would not take the lead on a tax hike. House GOP Leader Tom Cross indicated that he still has the hammer down on his members who might be amenable to a tax hike. “It’s not going to happen,” said Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno.
Just like that, the whole thing was dead before Quinn’s voice had stopped echoing in the House chambers.
In a different year, the theory behind Quinn’s tax hike gambit wouldn’t be bad.
People despise Illinois government these days - for good reason - so a tax increase for state operations is pretty much out of the question. Most people do like their local schools, parents like their kids’ teachers, and property tax payers are fed up with constant increases. Using a tax hike to “save” the schools is far easier to do than justifying a tax hike to make more pension payments to state employees, or fund a state system widely derided as incompetent and corrupt.
But anybody who takes the time to look at this proposal knows it’s just too obvious of a setup. Gov. Quinn didn’t propose any cuts at all to the State Board of Education’s bureaucracy. Instead, the slashes were all classroom-related. And education took well over half of all the cuts Quinn proposed, despite being only about a third of the budget.
Rather than making a serious attempt to balance the budget in a reasonable, even-handed manner, the Quinn administration went far out of its way to strike maximum fear into the populace. The real motivation behind this gambit is just way too overt to be believable.
And does anybody really believe that Quinn will actually stick to his guns? Doubtful. The governor threatened a doomsday for social service providers last year and then blinked when his deadline approached. He’s an old-school, compassionate liberal. Everybody knows he doesn’t want to make these cuts and will do just about anything to avoid them.
There are those in the administration who say the tax-hike-for-schools template can be used after the November election (assuming Quinn wins), when legislators feel safer about voting for it. The proposal, the insiders say, is more of a road map for the future than a plan to be implemented this spring.
The schools tax hike, they say, is also a way to lessen the pain of the inevitable Republican charge that the Democrats are not-so-secretly planning to raise taxes once they’re reinstalled in power in November. But if the “secret” plan is to raise taxes for schools and local governments, that might mitigate the political damage by giving Quinn a way to dodge claims on the campaign trail that he wants to raise taxes to prop up the bureaucracy. The polling numbers are turning so bad on taxes right now that Quinn needed to do something to save his political skin without totally abandoning his principles.
That’s all well and good and a dandy little political theory. In the meantime, the state is $13 billion in the red and still lacking a real plan to tackle it.
* Related…
* Lawmakers get eviction notices: The state’s money problems are so bad that lawmakers are getting eviction notices and calls from collection agencies about their offices back home.
Before Brady took the stage, his opponents in the primary race took turns praising the longtime Bloomington lawmaker and attacking Springfield leadership.
“We need a Republican governor so badly in Springfield,” said Kirk Dillard, who lost the primary election to Brady by just 193 votes.
He said out-of-control spending, post-census remapping and the releasing of prisoners has made it time for Republican leadership.
“Minorities are not, in this state, dependent on government jobs They’re looking for private-sector jobs,” said Brady, a real estate developer with other business interests. “They understand it’s private-sector principles that will bring big-box construction jobs, permanent jobs and affordable quality food to their communities.”
One of the few times Brady campaigned in Chicago during the primary was when he did so on behalf of the “big box” (read: WalMart) stores.
But as he attacked Quinn’s recent call for a 33 percent increase in the state’s income tax—moving the personal rate from 3 percent to 4 percent—Brady also said he would not use his position as a state senator to sponsor his own budget plan. […]
“It doesn’t need to be put in legislation. It’s not complex,” Brady said of his fiscal plans. “We’re not going to play (the Democrats’) game. They’re all about politics and game playing.”
It won’t be put to paper because of the uproar it would cause.
* There were some other weird coverage aspects to the rally. First up, Fox Chicago…
Brady knows where votes are concentrated — and said it’s no co-incidence today’s rally was in the heart of Pat Quinn country.
Addison is the “heart of Pat Quinn country”? Does Fox (or Brady) know where Addison is? Yes, it’s far more Democratic than it used to be, but you gotta go a bit east for Pat Quinn country.
All of Bill Brady’s rivals attended the event, except Andy McKenna. ABC7 is told McKenna had a prior family commitment.
Yeah, he still owes his wife a fortune from his failed primary race against Brady. [/snark]
* Related…
* Quinn, Ponce & Marin: Governor Pat Quinn joins us on Chicago Tonight Monday evening at 7P on WTTW/Channel 11. We’ll talk taxes or no taxes, legislative gridlock, teacher layoffs, and the November election.
* Illinois Democrats to pick Scott Lee Cohen replacement March 27
* Political runners-up shouldn’t win: I don’t recall Daley saying “If you run for public office and the person drops out before the election or even after the election, the person who was second moves automatically up” four years ago when medically incapacitated Cook County Board President John Stroger had to withdraw from his re-election bid shortly after eking out a victory over Commissioner Forrest Claypool.
