Halvorson confirms
Tuesday, Oct 2, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
Senate Majority Leader debby Halvorson just confirmed that she’s running for Congress.
Halvorson added that the Kankakee Comm College President would drop out of the Dem primary.
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* 12:42 pm - From the Politico…
In a big recruiting coup for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Illinois Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson (D) will be announcing that she is running for the seat held by the retiring Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.).
“She sees this as a historic time in Washington and she wants to be a part of it,” said one Democratic operative familiar with her decision-making process. “She wants to bring the things she accomplished in Illinois to Washington.”
Halvorson met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this past weekend as part of her meetings with Democratic officials in Washington. She also met with EMILY’s List, which funds and supports Democratic candidates who support abortion rights.
Many operatives had speculated that she wanted to move up in the state legislative leadership, but the wooing by top Democrats helped convince her otherwise.
* 1:20 pm - The House is now debating the override motion of the governor’s vetoes. Listen here and live-blog it below if you want.
* 1:25 pm - Check out the banner ad just above this WREX story about the veto overrides. I wonder if the guv cut anything important to the Illinois Pork Producers….
* 2:03 pm - Yesterday, I told you about a hideous flier that was distributed across Illinois. Bernie Schoenburg attempted to get a response from the governor’s office about the flier, but didn’t receive or see the email before his deadline. Here is the statement from the guv’s office…
We had nothing to do with the flier you’re asking about and, in fact, hadn’t seen it until you sent it along. Our focus is on passing a $25 billion capital program to fund critical infrastructure projects around the state and launch a program to provide every single Illinois woman with access to live saving breast and cervical cancer screenings and treatment.
* 2:04 pm - A whopping 104 House members just voted to override the governor’s line-item vetoes of the budget. Just 4 voted “No.” Reduction veto overrides are next.
* 2:19 pm - The second veto override motion passed 105-4.
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Question of the day
Tuesday, Oct 2, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
* You’ve probably seen this quote already from Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who said it during yesterday’s Cub rally downtown…
“As the governor, I stopped asking myself first the question ‘Is it the right thing or the wrong thing?’ Now the first question I ask myself when I govern Illinois is, ‘What would Lou do?”
Question: Rod Blagojevich is to Lou Piniella as ___________ is to ___________.
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A closer look
Tuesday, Oct 2, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
* GateHouse had a good summary of some of the people who testified at yesterday’s Committee of the Whole…
- Martin Rue, superintendent of the LaSalle County Veterans Assistance Commission. He used the word “devastating” to describe budget cuts exceeding $3 million for the LaSalle Veterans Home. The money was to be used for staff members and medical equipment at the home, which has a waiting list of 450 veterans, he said.
- Howard Peters, senior vice president for the Illinois Hospital Association. He said the governor’s plan to expand health-care access is a good idea, but Peters also called on lawmakers to reverse Blagojevich’s decision to trim from the state budget $40 million in Medicaid payments to hospitals.
- Greg Chance, a board member of the Illinois Rural Health Association. He told House members that the association is concerned about several gubernatorial vetoes. One of them, for example, would eliminate $3 million for school-based health centers in rural Illinois, said Chance, who also is public health administrator for the Knox County Health Department.
- Christine Becker, president of the Illinois Chiropractic Society. She criticized Blagojevich’s explanation of his budget cuts, saying: “To expand health care for the poor by cutting health care for the poor makes no common sense.”
* And the Daily Herald managed to pin down the governor’s office on some specific questions. For a while yesterday, the guv’s office was sticking by a boilerplate response to all queries about the House hearing. That apparently changed as the day wore on…
Q:How did you decide what to cut? Did politics play a role?
Governor’s office: “Some of the projects lawmakers included in the budget did not have anything to do with the mission of state government like constructing beach volleyball courts or paying for a dance festival. And while there were some worthwhile projects, we simply can’t fund the state’s top priorities — education and health care — as well as countless member initiatives because the General Assembly did not pass enough new revenues to pay for all the things we may care about.”
Reaction: “But what was the real motivation?” asked House Democrats’ budget director John Lowder. He pointed to a Wayne Township bridge project in which the governor cut half of the funding, but oddly left the other half. “Identical projects for nearly identical purposes for nearly identical amounts. The only difference is which caucus sponsored the project.”
Q:Where’s the money going?
Governor’s office: “There is a serious health care crisis that is impacting families throughout the state leaving many struggling to afford or have access to care. This crisis was completely ignored in the budget passed by legislators.”
Reaction: “He’s actually cutting health care to provide health care of his own choosing,” said state Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat, citing cuts to several health care and community care groups.
Q:How do you define pork spending?
Governor’s office: “Member initiatives that didn’t go through the appropriations process, but instead were inserted into the budget at the last minute without any public discourse or hearings as a means for Speaker (Michael) Madigan to buy votes from his members for a budget bill that they hadn’t seen.”
Reaction: “Perhaps the governor needs to revisit the definition of pork,” said Cathy Ficker Terrill, chief executive of the Downers Grove-based Ray Graham Association, which lost a funding increase. “Pork is unnecessary and frivolous. Pork is not helping people with disabilities to live and work in the community.”
It’s kinda funny that the guv’s office is complaining about items “inserted into the budget at the last minute without any public discourse or hearings” when he’s proposing to use that money for programs that received no public hearings and no votes in either legislative chamber. But, hey, such is life with this governor.
* More…
* IL House tries to put face on governor’s budget cuts
* House hears fallout from Gov’s vetoes
* House discusses budget cuts
* Bipartisan effort likely won’t overturn Blagojevich’s veto
* Agency chiefs plead with House for funding
* House hears fallout from budget vetoes
* Bethany Jaegar: Can he do that?
* Blagojevich’s cuts called political
* Opinion: Communities expect elected officials to bring home to bacon
* Opinion: Lawmakers should override library funding veto
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Race to raise taxes
Tuesday, Oct 2, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
* As expected, Todd Stroger didn’t have enough votes to pass his two-point sales tax hike yesterday…
A clearly frustrated Cook County Board President Todd Stroger failed Monday to cobble together the votes needed to hike the sales tax.
Stroger called commissioners who shot it down “part-time workers” who don’t appreciate the gravity of the situation and didn’t do the job that “should’ve been done.” He’s now headed back to the drawing board to fill a $307 million hole in the county’s $3 billion budget. […]
Rather than see the sales tax hike shot down, Commissioner Joan Murphy moved for it to be deferred until Oct. 16, allowing time for what Commissioner Forrest Claypool called “behind-the-scenes, closed-door arm-twisting.”
Stroger said he’ll engage in “the art of compromise.”
* And what will that compromise be? Perhaps a scaled-back sales tax increase, which is probably what he should’ve done all along. Stroger may have received bad advice on the whip count, which could have prompted him to go ahead with yesterday’s vote on the two-point increase.
But, the vote was 8-8, so Stroger could have cast the tiebreaking vote if he was serious about this tax increase. He didn’t, and instead said he would use that tiebreaker power if a smaller increase met the same fate.
* Mark Brown has more…
“I don’t think they’ll bring it back,” [Commissioner John Daley] said afterward when I asked what position he had taken. Stroger later explained that the rush is over now that the county missed Monday’s legal deadline that would have allowed it to begin collecting the sales tax Jan. 1, 2008.
Daley said he expects the Stroger administration will switch its focus to proposed new county utility taxes on natural gas, electricity and telecommunications, which he predicted will face court challenges.
“I told them they didn’t have the votes” on the sales tax, Daley said, which prompted me to again ask whether he was one of the votes “they” did or didn’t have. He still wouldn’t give me a direct answer.
“When it comes back, I think it’s going to be changed completely from what it is today,” he said instead.
* Meanwhile, Mayor Daley appears to be in a foot race with Stroger to get his tax hikes approved before the county does…
Mayor Daley on Monday served up a pick-your-poison menu of tax increases — including the largest property tax hike in Chicago history — and asked aldermen to choose enough of them to fill a $193 million budget gap.
The $108 million property tax increase would cost the owner of a $200,000 home roughly $57 more a year. […]
The entire menu would raise $319 million. The city needs $193 million to fill a gap now $24 million lower than initial estimates, officials said.
* More…
Options include increasing the city’s tax on a six-pack of beer by 4 cents and on wine by 2 cents a bottle; raising the city tax on gasoline by up to 10 cents a gallon; creating a 10-cent-a-bottle tax on bottled water; increasing the cost of vehicle stickers for sport-utility vehicles; quadrupling parking-meter rates in neighborhoods to $1 an hour; raising the sales tax on restaurant bills; making penalties heavier for parking-ticket scofflaws; and raising the 911 phone surcharge, according to City Hall sources.
Separately, water and sewer fee hikes also are a possibility.
* Related…
* Rampant patronage from city hall?
* City hiring cases flood court
* Tribune Editorial: If Stroger won’t lead…
* Zorn: Todd Stroger and the two percent solution
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Morning shorts
Tuesday, Oct 2, 2007 - Posted by Paul Richardson
* Illinois among several states suing Bush to block SCHIP growth
* Illinois in bind on health care
In Illinois, the issue is hitting home this week: On Monday, a federal agreement allowing the state to enroll adults in SCHIP expired. Most of these adults are parents who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid — the government’s health program for the very poor — but too little to buy insurance on their own or through employers.
Illinois has been more aggressive than any other state in signing up low-income parents for SCHIP. The program has become a crucial component of Family Care, Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s initiative to extend medical care to needy families. But this arrangement, which has pulled extra federal funds into the state, doesn’t look like it will continue.
* Rep. Rush’s son fired in IL prison sex scandal
Disclosure of Jeffrey Rush’s termination is prompting a call for Blagojevich to explain the circumstances behind his hiring. Federal authorities have been investigating Blagojevich’s hiring practices since 2005.
“This is unacceptable, especially in a position like this. Any time you’re dealing with a public-trust position or a more sensitive position like the Department of Corrections, you have to have people with the highest integrity,” said Sen. John Millner (R-Carol Stream). “There should be an investigation into the hiring of this individual.”
The Corrections Department vetted Jeffrey Rush the same as other hires, Schnapp said. All prison employees undergo criminal background checks.
Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff confirmed Rep. Rush persuaded the administration to hire his son, who had “both law enforcement and supervisory experience.”
Ottenhoff said the governor’s office gave Rep. Rush “a courtesy call to notify him that Jeffrey was being terminated” after an internal Corrections Department probe yielded its findings.
* Editorial: Illinois River, it’s sink or swim time
* GPS plan has some officers griping
Every Chicago police officer could have their movements electronically tracked by global positioning systems if a program being tested in the Chicago Lawn District wins approval.
The program, which requires officers to wear department-issued GPS cell phones on their belts while on duty, is intended as an officer-safety measure, bosses say, but also could be used to discipline officers.
Many officers are unhappy at what they see as an excessive intrusion upon their freedom to do their job. They say they already carry too much equipment, and they worry overzealous supervisors will use evidence from the phones to hound them.
* When and Where to watch the Cubs v. Dbacks
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* 11:00 am - The House just posted the first of its two hearings on the Senate-approved gaming bill. It’ll be held on Oct. 17th at 10:00 o’clock in the Thompson Center. [Hat tip to a subscriber in comments.]
* 11:03 am - You may have noticed that Bernie mentioned this site in his Sunday column…
Then there’s a flier, recently posted on www.thecapitolfaxblog.com, that accuses Madigan and President Bush of being “weapons of mass destruction” and says both are guilty of “failed leadership.”
“Madigan is an old style plantation political boss,” that flier says.
Brown said he believes the flier was distributed during budget battles this year at some South Side churches in Chicago and one in Decatur, where churchgoers are primarily black. Brown believes Blagojevich is behind the distribution. He called it “typical low-class crap you see from Blagojevich and his camp.”
REBECCA RAUSCH, spokeswoman for Blagojevich, didn’t immediately respond.
Here’s the flier, which was originally posted in the subscriber-only section. Click either pic for the full copy in pdf format…
 
* 11:20 am - My YouTube page has some new features. There are specialized playlists for videos about the Congressional campaigns, state legislative races and Cook County politics, plus several others. Go check it out.
* 11:40 am - The governor took some big whacks at Speaker Madigan on WBBM’s At Issue program over the weekend. Head to 780’s site to listen or just do so below…
[audio:blagoatissue9_30_08.mp3]
*** 11:48 am *** The House is scheduled to convene at noon today and then after the preliminaries they’ll open the Committee of the Whole to discuss the governor’s vetoes. I’ll be at the Statehouse and likely won’t blog much about it unless something big happens (and I’m paying attention - there’s more news I need to gather), so I’m asking readers to please live-blog the hearing in comments.
*** You can listen or watch by clicking here *** Thanks.
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Question of the day
Monday, Oct 1, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
* First, the setup, from a guest column in the SJ-R…
President Bush should pardon Ryan not because he is innocent, but because he became ensnared in the same archaic “cigar smoke” politics that pervaded the first 200 years of our nation’s history. And Judge Michael Kanne of the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld his conviction wrote in his Aug. 21 opinion that, “The basis for my dissent lies not in the exceedingly drawn out evidentiary phase of this trial, but in the dysfunctional jury deliberations,” suggesting that he is as concerned about justice being served as the underlying evidence.
Kanne said, “My colleagues in the majority concede that the trial of this case may not have been picture perfect — a whopping understatement by any measure.” Have we been too hasty to imprison a former governor whose day in court was as corrupt as he is? Perhaps we should take a more crucial look at Kanne’s dissent. How would we feel if a jury deciding our fate consisted of people who were not sequestered from the media, where the public’s outcry of “Hang the bum!” appeared on every television screen and newspaper?
Would we not demand a mistrial if jurors were under investigation for lying to the court, hiring their own lawyers to keep from being prosecuted, and who were granted immunity by the U.S. attorney to prevent the case from being thrown out altogether? How in the name of jurisprudence can we ignore a situation where a juror took information into the jury room that they found on the Internet to use against a defendant that was not part of the trial testimony?
Some people believe that Ryan’s prosecution was little more than a vindictive reprisal by the U.S. government and Illinois officials for his January 2003 executive clemency order that spared the lives of 167 death row inmates just before he left office. While this may be a stretch, it is something to consider when weighing the principles of criminal law against the application of its intent.
Given the bizarre culture of Illinois politics, the improprieties that plagued Ryan’s trial, his advancing age and unlikelihood for recidivism, a presidential pardon would be in the interest of the federal justice system and the people of Illinois.
* Question: Do you agree that President Bush ought to pardon George Ryan? Why or why not?
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Flubs Monday
Monday, Oct 1, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
* All this bluster about a playoff berth? Please…
Fans will be celebrating the National League Central champion Chicago Cubs at a noontime rally in downtown Daley Center Plaza today. […]
The Cubs’ first playoff series begins Wednesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix.
* The Cubs would be in third place in every other division except the NL West, where they’d be in fourth place. Yet, Mayor Daley is cynically jumping on the bandwagon…
Like the sun setting over the lake or ketchup garnishing a hot dog, there are some things you just don’t expect to see in Chicago.
But there was Mayor Daley on Saturday, wearing a Cubs hat.
* From an e-mail I received the other day…
Where’s the Cubs coverage? I remember back in 2005 you had Friday blogs for months about the Sox. I want equal time. I want the Cubs up front and center. Get on it.
Be careful what you wish for.
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Norquist and Illinois - An odd couple
Monday, Oct 1, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The thing I like about Grover Norquist is that he’s completely honest about his intentions…
“I don’t want to abolish” government, he once said. “I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”
* There’s no beating around the bush with this guy. He’ll tell you exactly what he intends to do. Norquist was in Springfield recently for a reception…
Norquist says conservatives must starve liberals of tax revenue, thereby turning them into “competing parasites” that will cannibalize each other — and, ultimately, the government.
* I’m not sure that message resonates very well in Illinois. After all, the Senate Republican leader just signed off on a multi-billion dollar gaming expansion plan that will pay for massive infrastructure redevelopment as well as provide at least a half billion dollars for schools and transit.
Senate Republicans could have plenty of road, airport and college construction projects to bring home to their districts this fall - all backed by written promises from the governor.
Republicans last week provided the crucial support needed to pass a $13 billion state construction plan out of the Senate only after getting signed agreements from Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s office.
* And the House Republicans have said they’ll participate in a plan to override the governor’s budget vetoes this week…
There apparently are enough House votes to approve the override motion.
* Quite a few state facilities are in Republican districts - the result of decades of GOP rule. As a result, Republicans often find themselves in the position of fighting for more state spending.
Illinois likes its social programs and its pork, so Norquististas are few and far between in the General Assembly in either party.
* Plus, the Democratic governor is against tax hikes “on people.” Instead, he is always on the lookout for other revenue sources and ways to game the system to produce more dollars for his government expansion…
[The budget director for Republican governor Jim Edgar and George Ryan, Steve Schnorf] said he had to give the Blagojevich administration credit. During the transition, he said, “I said to him (Blagojevich) and to (then-budget chief) JOHN FILAN … ‘You guys can’t get through four years without a tax increase, it just can’t be done.’ And he said, ‘We think it can.’ And he absolutely proved that it could be. They’ve gotten through five years now without any increase in our two significant statewide taxes.”
* More stories…
* Editorial: House has a place to start - “Among the more than $400 million in cuts Blagojevich made to the state budget in order to find funding for his own health-care initiatives was a $100,000 cut to the HeartSavers AED Trust Fund. That trust fund was set up to provide 50 percent matches to units of local governments in order to purchase lifesaving automated external defibrillators.”
* Sun-Times Editorial: State leaders need to lose egos and work together to solve problems
* Schools ‘wait and wonder’ as state wrangles with budget
* Editorial: Capital idea, but no jackpot
* A look at projects in the GOP construction pacts
* State construction bill includes more than roads, schools
* Lawmakers to attack budget again in veto session
* Lawmakers back in Springfield
* Plan to assist Chicago transit may also help out downstate
* Public transit service update
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Springfield isn’t the only mess
Monday, Oct 1, 2007 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Cook County politics appears to be as dysfunctional as its statewide cousin…
A Latino commissioner angrily charged Friday that Cook County Board President Todd Stroger’s office and allies are threatening to crack down on illegal immigrants unless the commissioner votes for a 2 percent sales tax increase.
Commissioner Roberto Maldonado says the not-so-thinly veiled threats came to a head during a Friday breakfast meeting with Stroger chief of staff Lance Tyson.
Just three months after the County Board voted to declare the county a “sanctuary” for immigrants, Stroger ally Commissioner William Beavers is introducing a measure Tuesday to temporarily revoke that status and allow the county to study its “fiscal impact.”
* Maldonado is the crucial swing vote who will make or break Stroger’s tax hike, so the county board president is now trying to distance himself from his political godfather’s idea…
In a Sun-Times story Sunday, Maldonado said he would not back any Stroger tax plans unless Commissioner William Beavers withdraws a proposal to revoke temporarily Cook County’s status as a sanctuary for illegal immigrants while a financial impact study is conducted. Stroger distanced himself from Beavers’ proposal Sunday, saying he did not support it.
* Meanwhile, Gov. Blagojevich couldn’t stop himself from jumping into the fray. Stroger has said the tax hike could help him save the county’s health care system…
But in an appearance Sunday on WMAQ-Channel 5’s “City Desk,” Gov. Blagojevich came out swinging against a sales tax hike, saying “it’s wrong” and “disproportionally hurts low-income and working-class families.”
“We are trying to pass access to health care for everybody that would ease the Cook County health care budget by $300 million,” the governor said.
* Here’s that City Desk video.
* The insanity continues. Not all county commissioners cut their budget as required…
While most made sacrifices by cutting thousands of dollars from their office budgets, laying off employees or taking furlough days, Commissioner Earlean Collins hardly cut anything at all from her budget.
“No, I didn’t cut 17 percent,” she said. “I had my reasons. But I’m not getting into that with you.”
Collins recently said it’s necessary for her to retain her own attorney, providing legal advice, because she doesn’t always trust advice from the state’s attorney, who is the board’s attorney.
* Related stories and editorials…
* Critics say sales tax would hurt Cook Co.
* Tribune Editorial: John Daley and the truth
* Daily Herald Editorial: Cook sales tax hike should be rejected
* Daley’s double tax trouble
* CPR: Commissioners debate sales tax boost
* Stroger’s push for tax increase draws criticism
Discuss your disgust.
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Morning shorts
Monday, Oct 1, 2007 - Posted by Paul Richardson
* Hospitals cry poor over charity care
* Governor fires up attack on emissions
* League of Women Voters pushing constitutional amendment
* Museum’s Grant Park plan hits new hurdle - “Friends of the Parks does not support the Children’s Museum as currently proposed for Grant Park”
* Cubs offer to aldermen could be ticket to trouble
* Fines add up for Illinois tollway cheats
* 65 mph truck limit may stand; more here
* Local GOP leaders line up for their candidates
* Business leaders line up for GOP candidates
* Field to replace Hastert in IL-14th expands to 7; more here
* Peoria Story: Versace at Democrats picnic
* Prepare for clout drought with departures in Congress
Organized lobbying efforts that bring together elected officials and business leaders - such as the “One Voice” project coordinated by the Economic Development Council of the Bloomington-Normal area - will take on added importance when the seniority of those congressmen is lost.
Johnson, LaHood and Weller have done a fairly good job of funneling money to this area for its roads, universities, airport and projects such as the planned transportation center in uptown Normal.
But even with its clout, Illinois generally has sent more money to Washington, D.C., than it has received.
* John Hilkevitch: State to hold talks on expanding roadway to O’Hare
* Gangs posing threat at Joliet schools?
* Pot harvest time
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