* OK, that’s it for me. I’ll have something for subscribers either tonight or tomorrow morning, but otherwise I’m done for the week unless something truly weird happens. I hope all of you have a relaxing and joyful Thanksgiving break.
I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supported my campaign. While Election night ended with us hopeful, we soon learned in the 3 days that followed that 14,000 absentee ballots arrived at the DuPage Election Commission that still needed to be counted. Unfortunately, with those votes now counted, we are going to come up short. I congratulate my opponent and her supporters. I am proud of the campaign we’ve run, and I am forever grateful for the honor to represent the 21st Senate District. Thank you again, and may each and every one of you have a Happy Thanksgiving holiday.
Connelly (R-Lisle) lost to Laura Ellman (D-Naperville).
The Senate Democrats picked up three seats. They now have a 40-19 advantage.
And to be clear about how big this Connelly pickup is, the two House members in his district are Jeanne Ives and Grant Wehrli.
* As we discussed earlier, the City Club invited three people (Pat Brady, Dan Proft and Kristen McQueary) to discuss the future of the Illinois Republican Party.
* The Question: What names would you have suggested instead? No snark, please and don’t forget to explain your answer.
The Illinois Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB) has released its five-year budget projections. The forecast, not surprisingly, is alarming. Spending continues to outpace revenues by a large margin.
Despite last year’s 32 percent tax hike ($5 billion yearly), GOMB expects Illinois to maintain average budget deficits of about $3 billion over the next five years.
* A couple of caveats before beginning. This is the economic forecast used for the revenue estimates…
The pessimistic forecast assumes economic growth grows to 3.1 percent to 2019, before contracting by 0.7 percent in 2020, with a recession from fourth quarter 2019 to second quarter 2020.
Barring the passage of meaningful economic and political structural changes, Illinois’ anemic employment and economic growth is expected to continue to underperform the nation over the next five years.
Does that “meaningful economic and political structural changes” phrase mean “right to work and term limits”?
* Despite the governor’s repeated claims during the campaign that the first budget he signed into law is balanced, his GOMB is projecting a deficit at the end of this fiscal year of $546 million, plus maybe another $500 million more if Rauner loses his AFSCME step increase case.
The projection for FY20 (Pritzker’s first full fiscal year) includes an overall resources decrease of about $100 million, due mainly to a $400 million disappearance of interfund borrowing and a super-anemic projected state tax revenue increase of just $331 million (1 percent). GOMB projects a spending increase of about $2 billion, driven mainly by pensions ($1.1 billion), K-12 education ($400 million) and healthcare ($400 million).
* Looking more long-term, of that grand total of $16 billion or so in projected structural budget deficits racked up over the next five fiscal years, about $2.3 billion of that is due to pensions. Another $1.8 billion is for K-12 education, $1.3 billion for AFSCME step increases, $1.1 billion for healthcare, $459 million for human services, $334 million for employee group health insurance and $181 million for public safety.
Not to mention that the state’s projected bill backlog at the end of the current fiscal year is $7.8 billion.
Illinois Attorney General-elect Kwame Raoul announced the transition committee for his office today. The group will assist in transitioning the functions of the office from Attorney General Lisa Madigan to Raoul, who was elected to the office earlier this month.
“I am pleased to be working with this team of accomplished legal and policy professionals as I prepare to serve Illinois’ diverse communities as attorney general,” Raoul said. “As the transition proceeds, I will continue to engage perspectives from throughout the state, including through issue-specific working groups.”
* Committee members…
Kimberly M. Foxx is the first African American woman to lead the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. She was elected in 2016 with a vision for transforming the office into a fairer, more forward-thinking agency. In her first year in office, Foxx undertook substantial reforms, such as revamping the Conviction Integrity Unit, leading bond reform efforts, and prioritizing resources away from low-level offenses. Prior to being elected state’s attorney, Foxx served as an Assistant State’s Attorney for 12 years and as a guardian ad litem advocating for children navigating the child welfare system. She also served as chief of staff for the Cook County Board President. Foxx is a graduate of Southern Illinois University, where she earned a B.A. in Political Science and a J.D. from the SIU School of Law.
Nancy Rotering was elected mayor of Highland Park in 2011 and re-elected in 2015. She began her career on the General Motors Treasurer’s staff. In 1990, she joined McDermott Will & Emery as a health law attorney. She shifted her focus to government work in 2008, joining the staff of state Representative Karen May. In 2015, she founded the Highland Park-Highwood Legal Aid Clinic. Rotering earned a Bachelor’s degree in economics from Stanford University, an MBA from Northwestern University and a law degree from the University of Chicago.
Bob Berlin serves as state’s attorney for DuPage County and president of the Illinois State’s Attorneys Association. A prosecutor for more than 30 years, Berlin worked for the Cook County and Kane County state’s attorneys before moving to the DuPage County State’s Attorney’s Office. Berlin held supervisory roles in the Juvenile, Felony Trial and Criminal divisions before becoming the county’s state’s attorney in 2010. Berlin has since been elected to the position twice as a Republican. He is well-known for his expertise in criminal justice reform and policy issues surrounding opioid abuse. Berlin received his J.D. from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis and his undergraduate degree from Dickinson College.
Andrea Zopp is president and CEO of World Business Chicago, leading a mission of inclusive economic growth, supporting businesses, and promoting Chicago as a leading global city. Most recently, she served as Deputy Mayor, Chief Neighborhood Development Officer for the City of Chicago. She also served in the United States Attorney’s Office and was the first woman and African American to serve as the First Assistant in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. Zopp has held executive leadership positions at several Fortune 500 companies, including Sara Lee, Sears Holdings and Exelon, and she previously led the Chicago Urban League. She has served on the Chicago Board of Education and the Cook County Health and Hospital System Board. Zopp is a graduate of Harvard College and Law School.
Renato Mariotti, an experienced trial lawyer and former prosecutor, is a partner at Thompson Coburn, LLP, where he represents clients in high-stakes litigation. As a federal prosecutor, Mariotti was best known for leading the first-ever indictment and prosecution of a high-frequency trader under the anti-spoofing provision of the Dodd-Frank Act, a major case that signaled a sea change in the government’s ability to enforce securities regulations in the era of computer-aided trading. In addition to his legal work, he is a CNN Legal Analyst and an advocate for the rule of law and for protecting electoral systems from attack. Mariotti is a graduate of Yale Law School and the University of Chicago.
Brendan Kelly has served as state’s attorney for St. Clair County for eight years, focusing on violent crime and public integrity. A graduate of Notre Dame and Saint Louis University of Law, Kelly served in the Middle East in the U.S. Navy, conducting research on joint Israeli-Palestinian police patrols. He served as President of the Illinois State’s Attorneys Association and on the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission, the Illinois Criminal Justice and Sentencing Reform Commission, and the Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force Law Enforcement Working Group. As state’s attorney, he has been a strong supporter of innovative law enforcement work on opioids and juvenile justice, reducing violent crime by 41% during his tenure.
Kathryn Bocanegra, AM, LCSW, ABD is a National Institute of Justice Graduate Research Fellow and doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago examining the intersection of communities and criminal justice interventions and how to develop localized strategies to enhance public safety and heal from traumatic exposure. Bocanegra has directed community violence prevention programming such as street intervention, school-based mentoring and trauma-informed family interventions. She has over 10 years of experience running support groups for families of homicide victims and trains community groups on working with crime survivors. Bocanegra is a member of the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council and served on the Illinois Governor’s Commission on Criminal Justice and Sentencing Reform.
Zachary Fardon, a former federal prosecutor, is Managing Partner and Head of Litigation at King & Spalding LLP, and a partner in the firm’s Special Matters and Government Investigations practice. As United States Attorney in Chicago, Fardon oversaw successful investigations and prosecutions in the areas of financial crime, corporate misconduct, fraud, public corruption, gangs and terrorism. His 25-year career in the private and public sectors has focused on high-stakes litigation of criminal and civil matters. Fardon earned law and undergraduate degrees from Vanderbilt University.
Alan King is a partner in Drinker, Biddle & Reath LLP, representing clients in the areas of employment litigation and counseling. He is vice chair of the firm’s Labor and Employment Group. He has extensive experience on behalf of private and public employers in individual and class-action cases in federal and state court, and he has participated in more than 100 mediations and settlement conferences. King was named one of 40 Illinois Attorneys Under 40 to Watch by the Law Bulletin Publishing Company in 2003. He has served on the boards of many civic and professional organizations, including the Children First Fund, the Ounce of Prevention Fund, the Chicago Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms. King earned his J.D. from the University of Illinois and his B.A. from Augustana College.
Kathryn Saltmarsh is the Executive Director of the Sentencing Policy Advisory Council (SPAC), an independent commission tasked with providing system-wide fiscal impact analysis for sentencing policy as well as facilitating the use of research and analysis to support implementation of evidence-based practices. Attorney General-Elect Raoul has served as Vice-Chair of SPAC since its inception in 2009. Saltmarsh previously served as Legislative Affairs Bureau Chief for the Office of the Illinois Attorney General and an assistant defender with the Supreme Court Unit of the Office of the State Appellate Defender. Kathy currently serves on the Budgeting for Results Commission, the Criminal Justice Information Authority Board, and the Board for the Center for State Policy & Leadership at the University of Illinois Springfield.
At least one Republican, some former primary opponents, a former US Attorney and a Downstate prosecutor who ran a decent congressional campaign (good candidate, wrong district).
* Staff…
Kim Janas has worked in a variety of positions in state government, including as Secretary of the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission. Formerly, she was an Associate Counsel at the Office of Illinois Senate President John J. Cullerton, where she advised the Senate Judiciary and Insurance Committees. Janas was also an Assistant Attorney General in the General Law Bureau under Attorney General Madigan and a Staff Attorney at the Legislative Reference Bureau. Most recently, Janas was the General Counsel for the Illinois State Medical Society and ISMIE Mutual Insurance Company. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Adam Braun is Of Counsel at Greenberg Traurig LLP, where he has been a member of the Government Law & Policy group since 2012. At Greenberg Traurig he has represented clients before State agencies and the General Assembly. Previously, he served as Deputy Legislative Director and Legislative Counsel to Governor Pat Quinn. Earlier in his career, he worked as Staff Attorney in the Office of the Illinois State Treasurer. Braun chaired the Illinois Holocaust and Genocide Commission from 2011-2014 and was appointed to chair the State Workers Compensation Advisory Board in 2011. He earned his J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law and undergraduate degrees from Columbia University and Jewish Theological Seminary.
Joe Duffy served as Raoul’s campaign manager, leading all statewide efforts through a competitive eight-way primary and general election for attorney general. Previously, Duffy worked with Everytown for Gun Safety in Nevada, where he managed a successful ballot initiative to require background checks on all gun sales. In 2014, he directed Iowa’s Democratic Party coordinated campaign. Duffy has also served as Executive Director of the Missouri Democratic party and worked for President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon’s reelection, and Organizing for America. A native of Northbrook, Illinois, Duffy holds a Bachelor’s degree in political science from Illinois State University.
Katharine P. Eastvold served as press secretary to Raoul’s campaign for attorney general. Previously, she worked at the Illinois General Assembly in the Office of the Senate President. She has also been a senior account executive at Frontline, an association management firm, serving as the Illinois HomeCare & Hospice Council’s Director of Regulatory and Government Affairs. Eastvold is a graduate of Princeton University and currently attends Loyola University Chicago School of Law.
Those interested in a position with the Office of the Attorney General or in contacting the transition team should email transition@kwameraoul.com.
Two weeks after Election Day, it’s still one of the closest countywide contests in DuPage’s recent history — and it may not be decided any time soon.
Unofficially, just 116 votes separate Democratic challenger Daniel Hebreard and Republican incumbent Joseph Cantore in the race for president of the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County.
On the night of the election, unofficial results showed Cantore ahead by more than 3,400 votes. But Hebreard has gained ground since vote-by-mail ballots began coming in, leaving the final result in doubt.
As of Monday night, Hebreard clung to a 116-vote lead with 177,185 votes, around 50.02 percent of the unofficial total. Cantore had 177,069 votes, around 49.98 percent of the unofficial total.
The DuPage County Election Commission counted nearly 300 vote-by-mail ballots on Monday. Suzanne Fahnestock, the commission’s executive director, said Tuesday is the deadline for additional vote-by-mail ballots to arrive.
Also on Tuesday, the commission will complete its review of roughly 1,800 provisional ballots, Fahnestock said. Provisional ballots that are found to be valid then will be counted. [Emphasis added.]
The overwhelming success of the Democrats’ vote-by-mail program is one of the least-covered stories of this election year.
In 1994, the Democrats lost 13 House seats by something like 2,000 votes. Lots of races are won and lost at the margins and the Democrats essentially had the vote-by-mail field to themselves.
So, as the Republicans talk about what they can do differently in 2020, a solid VBM program should be at or near the top of their list.
*** UPDATE *** The Democrat Hebreard ended up winning by 702 votes. County Board Chairman Dan Cronin, by the way, won with just 51.02 percent of the vote.
Creates the Firearms Restraining Order Act. Provides that a petitioner may request an emergency firearms restraining order by filing an affidavit or verified pleading alleging that the respondent poses an immediate and present danger of causing personal injury to himself, herself, or another by having in his or her custody or control, purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm. Provides that the petition shall also describe the type and location of any firearms presently believed by the petitioner to be possessed or controlled by the respondent. Provides that the petitioner may be a family member of the respondent or a law enforcement officer, who files a petition alleging that the respondent poses a danger of causing personal injury to himself, herself, or another by having in his or her custody or control, purchasing, possessing, or receiving a firearm.
Juan Lopez had threatened women before Monday’s shooting at Mercy Hospital but he never faced criminal charges, according to a review of court records by WGN Investigates.
Lopez’ ex-wife citied “constant infidelity and abuse” when she sought a dissolution of marriage roughly four years ago. “I fear that my safety is in jeopardy” the ex-wife said in a hand-written request for an emergency order of protection. […]
Court records reveal Lopez’ ex-wife was fearful as their marriage ended. “In the last month [Lopez] has slept with pistol under his pillow,” she wrote. She said she was fearful their young child would get his hands on the gun. She also described Lopez pulling a gun on a realtor. In December 2014, she wrote: “He began sending threats via text message to come to my job and cause a scene.” Their marriage ended in 2015.
Nearly five years ago, colleagues said Lopez threatened to shoot-up the Chicago Fire Department training academy after he was fired for “improper conduct,” according to the Chicago Tribune. “He was accused of aggressive and improper conduct toward females at the academy,” Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford told the Tribune. “He was disciplined and terminated.”
Lopez reportedly held a valid firearm owner’s identification card and concealed carry license. He legally purchased at least four guns in the last five years, according to the Tribune.
Lopez could very well have been a candidate for an emergency firearms restraining order back then.
Not that it ever really did, but Illinois no longer has any excuse for not dealing with its pension crisis, given how Arizona has reformed its system. Arizona’s state constitutional pension protection clause was identical to Illinois’ in promising that “benefits shall not be diminished or impaired.” As in Illinois, its courts struck down, as violations of that clause, legislative reforms that would have reduced certain pension benefits.
But this month, Arizona voters passed Proposition 125 to amend the constitution to reduce benefits for two of its major pensions, covering corrections officers and elected officials. In 2016, voters passed Proposition 124 for an amendment to reduce pension benefits for police and firefighters.
The world hasn’t ended in Arizona. The working class hasn’t been destroyed. Pensioners aren’t dumpster diving. Prospects for pensioners actually getting a fair, predictable benefit have improved.
The particulars of the benefit reductions in Arizona aren’t important for now—they mostly addressed cost-of-living increases. Exactly what an Illinois amendment should say and what the resulting reforms should be are a discussion for a different day. The point for now is just that if the state constitution has to be changed to address an otherwise insurmountable pension crisis, then change it.
The actual benefit reductions are almost always “a discussion for another day.”
* Amanda Kass brought up a very valid point last week. How much should pensions be cut for real people?…
* Bad laws are often made during trying times because legislators can get caught up in the emotions of the moment. It goes without saying that a proposal to cut police pensions and survivor benefits wouldn’t go very far on a day like today, regardless of the fiscal need.
But it’s also important to remember that current and future pensioners are not just random entries on a spreadsheet. These are human beings.
…Adding… From the op-ed writer…
Spare us the melodrama. The sooner we get real pension reform, the smaller the haircuts will be and the more fairly it can be done. It's deniers like you, who have delayed reform, who will be held culpable in the end.
First, these are not “haircuts.” You get a haircut at a barber shop. These would be benefit cuts to real Illinoisans, something he still won’t fully admit to. How big do these cuts have to be? And who would see their benefits reduced?
And I’ve never said that the pension systems are in fine shape. That’s a complete fabrication on his part. But that’s what people like him do. Anyone who disagrees in the slightest is a “denier” who will be “held culpable in the end.” Such a tough guy.
When former state GOP leader Pat Brady said President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about women and minorities “hurts” Republicans, some guests at Monday’s City Club event booed. “Whether you like it or not,” Brady told the City Club crowd at Maggiano’s Banquets, “We have to come up with an Illinois strategy that bifurcates us away from the president’s message or we won’t be able to recruit people.”
Monday’s contentious scene is just another indication of how divided the Republican Party is after that blue-ish wave swept Illinois. The event was titled “Illinois GOP: Now What?”
At one point Brady also called out Dan Proft, who runs a right-wing PAC, for funneling $1.2 million to a primary candidate challenging Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin—who ultimately won. That kind of financial support could have benefited Erika Harold, Brady said of the GOP attorney general candidate who fell short. Brady wants financial support to carry candidates through the general election. But Proft, also a panelist, disagreed, saying, “Competition produces better goods and services. Primaries are for improving the quality of the caucus and generals are for growing the caucus.”
There was a glimmer of unity. Proft agreed with Brady on the need to do a better job recruiting young people, women and minorities. So now what?
Proft, who backed 22 far-right legislative candidates with money from his Liberty Principles PAC, only won a handful of those districts, where most of the candidates were also incumbents and relied more upon the party’s infrastructure than Proft money. Proft said Monday that he nearly stepped away from the election cycle back in August when he first saw polling evidence of a Blue Wave.
“I’ll tell you something i haven’t said publicly: I looked at these races…that my little group supported pre-Labor Day,” Proft said. “And the numbers I saw coming from suburban races — I had a conversation internally with our group: “should we sit this election out?” Because they were that bad.”
Proft didn’t end up pulling his support, but acknowledged he did not do particularly well on Election Day. However, Proft said he wasn’t about to change his methods. […]
“If these two sides can constantly focus on what the real opposition is, and that should be the Democrats — look at what they’ve done to the state, you don’t need me to go through all the numbers,” McQueary said. “That should be the focus of every conversation that these two gentlemen have and party should have going forward.”
State Republicans took a shellacking in the midterms. Former state chairman Pat Brady told the City Club it’s in part because they were out-organized by the Democrats on the fundamentals, like getting out the early vote.
“Listen, I’m not using this as an excuse at all, but they had $171 million to play with. They had gold-plated everything. It was something none of us has ever seen, but the reality is it’s what we have to face in 2020. That’s what we’re up against.”
The state GOP does have a billionaire – Governor Bruce Rauner – but whether he going to be willing to spend even more millions on organization after his loss remains to be seen.
I just don’t think that much of anything is going to change between now and 2020, when President Trump is likely to be on the ballot for reelection. The suburbs are gonna be brutal yet again for Republicans.
They should focus mostly on Downstate (where the President will help), while doing the best they can to defend suburban incumbents and make an effort at picking off some of the fluke Democratic winners. Start early, work hard and smart and hold Gov. Pritzker to his promise to veto a redistricting map that isn’t fairly drawn and then help make sure his veto isn’t overridden by Democratic super-majorities.
Also, find a way to get Dick Uihlein back on the same page. With Rauner and his checkbook making an exit, these primaries will only drain the resources necessary for the general election.
This week, Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson reported that Chicago police routinely fail to notify the Illinois State Police when they recover a firearm from someone who is a “clear and present danger” to themselves or the public. State law requires such notification within 24 hours.
With that information, the state police could then revoke that person’s FOID — Firearm Owner’s Identification — card because of mental unfitness.
Yet in 37 cases that Ferguson sampled in the last 3 ½ years, that notification never happened.
It’s scary to think that after officers transported someone who had a gun to a mental health facility, as happened in those 37 instances, they failed to take every step possible — and as required by law — to make sure that person’s gun was confiscated and not returned. It’s even scarier to contemplate, given how routinely the police encounter unstable individuals, the hundreds of other times when officers, knowingly or not, have no doubt ignored the law.
To their credit, the Chicago Police Department has responded quickly to Ferguson’s findings, updating orders to clarify when and what officers must do to enforce the mandate. But CPD has not been the only broken link. State police also have fallen short.
We reported back in 2015 that state police were largely ignoring a law requiring that they track guns owned by thousands of people whose FOID cards had been revoked for mental health reasons. A Chicago Tribune report in February 2017 found things hadn’t changed much: State police revoked more than 11,000 FOID cards the previous year, but rarely took guns away as a result.
Fixing this problem needs to be a top priority of the incoming Pritzker administration. And whomever is nominated to run the Illinois State Police needs to be pressed hard on this issue during the Senate confirmation process.
A Chicago police officer and two other people were killed in an attack at a South Side hospital Monday afternoon that sent medical personnel and police scrambling through halls, stairwells and even the nursery in search of victims and the shooter before he was found dead.
Officer Samuel Jimenez, on the force less than two years, was gunned down as he went to the aid of other officers who had been called to Mercy Hospital & Medical Center around 3:20 p.m. about an assault. Jimenez, 28, was married with three small children. He’s the second Chicago police officer killed in the line of duty this year, the most since 2010 when five officers were fatally shot. The first was Near North District Cmdr. Paul Bauer, killed Feb. 13 outside the Thompson Center.
“Those officers that responded today saved a lot of lives,” said Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. “They were heroes because we just don’t know how much damage (the shooter) was prepared to do.”
Police had been called to the hospital after Juan Lopez, 32, confronted emergency room doctor Tamara O’Neal, apparently over a “broken engagement,” sources said. By the time Jimenez and his partner arrived on the scene, Lopez had shot O’Neal repeatedly, standing over her as he fired the last shots, according to police sources and witnesses.
“When they pulled up, they heard the gunshots, and they did what heroic officers always do — they ran toward that gunfire,” Johnson said. “So they weren’t assigned to that particular call, but they went because that’s what we do.”
That’s very true.
* There were some other heroes as well. If you have time today, listen to how the police dispatchers handled this horrible incident. They were calm professionals under pressure who helped focus and organize the police response…
* I have some errands to run that couldn’t be accomplished over the weekend. Judging from the large number of subscriber e-mail bounce-backs this morning and the texts (with photos) I’ve received from southern Florida, Puerto Rico and an undisclosed location on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean, I’m guessing that not a lot of you really care one way or the other.
Here are some stories that could help fuel the thread. Or you could just talk about the Bears. I’ll be back in the early afternoon…
* Downtown jobs keep soaring as mayoral race closes in: Downtown Chicago has added the jobs equivalent of almost three Amazon HQ2s in just eight years, even as growth in other neighborhoods and some suburbs turns negative
* Number of Illinois ‘gun sanctuary’ counties has increased though new gun laws haven’t advanced: The 39 counties that have passed resolutions in one form or another are: Brown, Calhoun, Christian, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Cumberland, Douglas, Edgar, Effingham, Fayette, Ford, Greene, Hamilton, Hardin, Henderson, Henry, Iroquois, Jasper, Jefferson, Lawrence, Livingston, Macon, Madison, Marion, McDonough, Mercer, Monroe, Montgomery, Perry, Pope, Saline, Shelby, Stark, Tazewell, Washington, Wayne, White and Woodford.
* With Pritzker and Madigan on board, Dems push again for pot legalization: While many details are still being hashed out, the plan would legalize the sale and use of cannabis for people over 21 years old and include a six-month period for officials to create rules and issue licenses should it be passed into law.
* Illinois marijuana legalization push gets huge boost with Pritzker win: “To me that is not the way we should deal with problems, to rely upon weed to be the guiding light to fix all the problems we are experiencing in Springfield,” said State Rep. Jim Durkin, House Republican Leader.
Attorneys for Democratic Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker on Friday called a federal lawsuit alleging racial discrimination in his campaign “long on accusations and short on factual allegations” and asked a judge to dismiss it. […]
The governor-elect’s attorneys made note of the lawsuit’s timing in their request for it be dismissed.
“Plaintiffs filed this suit on the eve of a hotly contested election and provided it to the press before serving it on the campaign,” the attorneys wrote. “Indeed, plaintiffs have still not served the campaign.”
Pritzker’s lawyers argued that the suit included “mischaracterizations, distortions, and outright falsehoods.”
“Everyone has the right to file a lawsuit, but everyone must plead plausible claims for relief. The Complaint is notably full of sweeping legal conclusions, overheated rhetoric, and rank speculation,” lawyers for Pritzker’s campaign wrote in the U.S. District Court filing.
“But what is most notable is what the Complaint does not contain — factual allegations demonstrating that Plaintiffs’ claims for relief are plausible,” the filing says.
The filing calls the accusations “baseless,” saying there are no facts to back up allegations of an adverse employment action because of race; being fired, demoted or paid less because of race; having a race-based hostile work environment; or anyone being subjected to “severe or pervasive harassment because of his or her race.” […]
The filing goes piece by piece in dissecting some of the allegations, while calling them “bald conclusions” and “a hodgepodge of irrelevant or vague statements.”
* Remember the staffer who claimed she’d been placed in a hotel in an “unsafe” part of Peoria? The campaign produced receipts showing they’d tried to accommodate her with other rooms. From the recent campaign filing…
In any event, Ms. Calhoun’s claim appears to be premised on her view that the hotel the Campaign paid for was not in a sufficiently swanky neighborhood.
With regard to Celia Colón, Plaintiffs allege that during a “mandatory cultural sensitivity training on September 12, 2018,” … “[w]hen Celia tried to ask a question, the training director instructed the person with the microphone not to give it to her.” No further details are provided. Plaintiffs do not allege that this had anything to do with Ms. Colón’s race as opposed to, by way of example, that the presentation had already been extended by an hour and it was necessary to move to the next training session.
I had the pleasure of meeting several Democratic women candidates from Lake County during the Illinois State Fair last summer. State Sen. Melinda Bush, D-Grayslake, was showing them around town and brought them to a reception I was attending. We chatted for a while before they went on their merry way.
“Merry” is actually an understatement. Those candidates were positively joyful. They seemed genuinely thrilled to be running for office. Only one had ever run for something before. The rest felt compelled to get involved after the 2016 election.
Sen. Bush brought 10 women with her to Springfield and she said four of them went on to win their respective races. Well, maybe three, but Bush is optimistic that Mary Edly-Allen will wind up defeating appointed Rep. Helene Miller Walsh (R-Mundelein). Edly-Allen is ahead by two votes as I write this, with more to count.
Joyce Mason, the only candidate who’d run for office before and who defeated Rep. Sheri Jesiel by more than 1,000 votes, was also at the event, as were two county board candidates who appear to have won, Jessica Vealitzek and Julie Simpson. The county board flipped from Republican to Democratic control for the first time ever, and those two candidates were crucial to that effort. Two other women candidates who didn’t make the trip to Springfield both won countywide races, Robin O’Connor (clerk) and Holly Kim (treasurer).
Sen. Bush helped found an organization called the Lake County Democratic Independent Women on Oct. 30 of 2017. She said she sent out some e-mails and started a Facebook page.
Women came out of the woodwork after the 2016 election and Bush wanted to help them focus their enthusiasm on actually winning races and then holding on to those seats down the road.
The group has an office and a field director and members meet once a month. A “pink wave” garden party fund-raiser pulled in $15,000, and Bush said people told her at the event that it felt like “coming to a wedding, everyone is so happy.”
When Bush first won her own Senate seat in 2012, her district and both of its attached House districts were held by Republicans. Now, with Rep. Jesiel’s defeat, all three legislators are Democratic.
Things are definitely changing in Lake County, but they didn’t necessarily change on their own. The House Democrats did their part by pumping in tons of money and staff over the months, but Mason was also helped by that independent women’s group. The House Democrats got into the Miller Walsh race late, but Edly-Allen had taken the group’s training and had already been walking precincts for months. “These were areas where we weren’t supposed to win,” Bush said.
Sen. Bush said that while House Speaker Michael Madigan is likely pleased that he has two more Democratic seats, she cautioned that both women are independent Democrats. In other words, they’re not the usual ducklings who will quietly follow orders traditionally given to targeted members.
Bush said she doesn’t just want to help people win elections, “I want to help them be really good representatives.” She said her advice to all candidates is that they shouldn’t be thinking how their voting record in Springfield or on the county board would get them reelected. Hard work back in the district will pay greater dividends. “The harder you work, the luckier you get,” she said. “I want to see people work really hard and do what they think is right.”
Bush should know. I jokingly chided her during her freshman year in office for having such a liberal voting record while representing an area not known for its liberalism. But she won her last election by nine percentage points and is encouraging others to do what she does: Vote your conscience and work your tail off back home. So, even if you wind up losing, you can go out with no policy regrets.
That’s a refreshing attitude in the suburbs, where Democratic candidates are generally cautioned to steer a far more moderate, poll-tested course. But it’s not like the House Democrats need those two seats to retain their hold on Statehouse power. If nothing else, it could be an interesting experiment.
And Bush isn’t finished. She said 13 women have signed up for training in the upcoming municipal elections. “I’d like to see more of these in both parties,” she said of her organization.
To portray an accomplished, savvy woman with 20 years in politics as the Frankenstein monster love child of two men is as sexist as it gets. […]
Every woman in this race will be dogged by such tropes.
Women can’t get anywhere, or do anything, without the men, or so it goes. The men give the orders. The men tell them when to start and where to go.
Yes, Mendoza and all the other women in this race have been supported and aided by men. Men in politics, especially white men, still control the vast majority of power and institutions here and most everywhere else.
To get things done, women leaders must, and should, work with men. And then out-work them.
* A Pritzker transition spokesperson says the governor-elect was in attendance…
Several of the nation’s newly elected governors, including Colorado’s Jared Polis, were gathered over the weekend at The Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs at a National Governors Association meeting.
The “Seminar for New Governors” was off-limits to the press and public. […]
The weekend-long gathering was intended to be a “boot camp” to help incoming state chief executives to prepare for their new jobs.
“This is an attempt to give them a little bit more … practical exposure to some of the challenges and opportunities that past governors have dealt with as they’ve taken office,” James Nash, a spokesman for the NGA, told KRCC.
Pritzker attended Friday through Sunday, I’m told.
Our last few governors tended to avoid these sorts of seminars, so I take this as a decent sign.
Tim Mapes, who was ousted as Speaker Mike Madigan’s Chief of Staff earlier this year, has landed a new job in the state capital. […]
NBC 5 has learned Mapes has been hired as a Principal Consultant for On Point Consultants, and he was spotted this week at the State Capitol during the veto session.
While he was removed from his powerful positions tied to Speaker Madigan, political observers note Mapes will now be allowed to use those same connections and resources that he acquired after years of experience to help get things done in Springfield for his clients.
Mapes told NBC 5 he was not commenting on his new position.
* Press release…
In response to reports that Tim Mapes, former chief of staff to House Speaker Michael J. Madigan and executive director of the Democratic Party of Illinois, has returned to work as a consultant in Springfield, Sherri Garrett, the statehouse employee who in June came forward with sexual harassment allegations against Mr. Mapes, issued the following statement on Friday:
“I was alarmed to learn that Mr. Mapes is apparently mounting a comeback in Springfield. Men who have been serially abusive in the workplace should not be able to simply take on a new job–in this case, ‘consulting’–and reenter that same workplace. Now, no longer a government employee, Mr. Mapes has even less accountability than he did before. He answers to no one.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Mapes isn’t the only harasser who has attempted to salvage his career by returning to Springfield as a ‘consultant,’ in some cases making even more money with even less recourse for bad behavior than before. We’re seeing a pattern emerge where these men are, in effect, rewarded for their abuse with lucrative contracts and little oversight. Victims of sexual misconduct everywhere should find this pattern alarming.
“We should all take issue with anyone who, even in this midst of the #MeToo movement, still happily hires known harassers or abusers as ‘consultants’ for their businesses in Springfield.”
Monday, Nov 19, 2018 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
With transportation expenses on the rise, Illinoisans are looking to car sharing to help them earn extra income and save costs on transportation.
Yet, legislation that lawmakers are considering, SB 2641, would deny Illinoisans from an opportunity to make money while their cars sit idle and unfairly double tax car owners.
Car sharing is not the same as car rental, and the two industries cannot be treated the same. With car sharing, car owners can benefit financially while they aren’t using their cars. When regular Illinoisans buy a car, they pay sales tax. Rental car companies don’t because they have a sales tax waiver. But, this bill would force a car owner who has already paid sales tax to pay twice if they want to earn extra money sharing their car.
Legislators should VOTE NO on the SB 2641 override.
Today, Governor-elect JB Pritzker and Lieutenant Governor-elect Juliana Stratton announced the formation and members of the transition’s Committee on Equality, Equity, and Opportunity.
The committee is the fourth of several working groups of the transition made up of subject-matter experts who will advise and guide the incoming Pritzker-Stratton administration. The Committee on Equality, Equity, and Opportunity will be chaired by Access Living President and CEO Marca Bristo, Casa Central interim President and CEO Marty Castro, and Pride Action Tank Executive Director Kim Hunt and consist of 25 members.
“JB and I are committed to building an inclusive administration that’s representative of the state we serve, and our transition team will start by listening to the communities across Illinois who haven’t been heard or who’ve experienced systemic disinvestment,” said Lieutenant Governor-elect Juliana Stratton. “The Committee on Equality, Equity, and Opportunity will tackle civil rights issues in our state and work to ensure Illinois can protect children and families from dangerous policies from the federal government. Illinois is a welcoming state for all, and JB and I are committed to making sure every resident has access to opportunity and the tools they need to thrive.”
COMMITTEE ON EQUALITY, EQUITY, AND OPPORTUNITY MEMBERS
Marca Bristo co-chairs the transition’s Committee on Equality, Equity, and Opportunity and is president and CEO of Access Living, one of the first 10 federally-funded centers for independent living in the United States. As the former president of the National Council on Independent Living, she worked with the broader civil rights community on the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987, the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Bristo served as the Presidentially-appointed chairperson of the National Council on Disability from 1994-2002. She is the most recent emeritus President of the United States International Council on Disabilities and is a member of Human Rights Watch Disability Advisory Committee and Obama Foundation Inclusion Council. Bristo serves on the Boards of Rush University Medical Center, Forefront, and the RIC Foundation.
Marty Castro co-chairs the transition’s Committee on Equality, Equity, and Opportunity and is the interim CEO of Casa Central, one of the largest Latino social service agencies in the Midwest, and CEO of Castro Synergies, a social impact consulting firm. Castro was appointed chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights by President Barack Obama and was the first Latino in U.S. history to hold that post. He also served as Chairperson of the Illinois Human Rights Commission during the Quinn Administration. Castro is active locally and globally on issues of social justice and is on the Board of Directors of the National Museum of Mexican Art, the Chicago Latino Theater Alliance and the Global Diplomacy Lab, and he is a member of the BMW Foundation’s Responsible Leaders Network.
Kim Hunt co-chairs the transition’s Committee on Equality, Equity, and Opportunity and is the executive director of the Pride Action Tank, a project of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, where she also serves as the senior director of Policy and Advocacy Operations. Hunt’s career spans the public, private, and nonprofit sectors with a focus on advocacy, community and organizational development, and leadership. She is the former executive director of Affinity Community Services, a social justice organization that works with and on behalf of Black LGBTQ people and queer youth. Prior to Affinity, she co-founded and served as managing partner of O-H Community Partners, a management and strategy consulting firm. Hunt has been inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame.
Jaquie Algee, Board Member, Women’s March Chicago
Tom Balanoff, President, SEIU Local 1
Lawrence Benito, CEO, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
John Bouman, President, National Sargeant Shriver Center on Poverty Law
Terry Cosgrove, President and CEO, Personal PAC
Ami Ghandi, Director of Voting Rights and Civic Empowerment, Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for
Civil Rights
Teresa Haley, President, Illinois State Conference NAACP
Chris Harris, Senior Pastor, Bright Star Church
Brian Johnson, CEO, Equality Illinois
Andy Kang, Executive Director, Asian Americans Advancing Justice
Theresa Mah, State Representative, Illinois General Assembly
T. Ray McJunkins, Senior Pastor, Union Baptist Church
William McNary, Co-Executive Director, Citizen Action
Ronald E. Powell, President, UFCW Local 881
Jan Schakowsky, Congresswoman, U.S. House of Representatives
Rebecca Shi, Executive Director, Illinois Business Immigration Coalition
Rabbi Michael Siegel, Senior Rabbi, Anshe Emet Synagogue
K. Sujata, President and CEO, Chicago Foundation for Women
* I’m not yet sure what’s going to happen next week as far as the blog goes. I will probably post on Monday and Tuesday. We’ll see.
Politics is one of the only businesses where you can work harder than you’ve ever worked and totally dedicate yourself to the task at hand every single day and still come up short. This song is for the folks who busted their humps and didn’t win last week…
The past is gone
It went by, like dusk to dawn
Isn’t that the way
Everybody’s got the dues in life to pay
I know nobody knows
Where it comes and where it goes
I know it’s everybody’s sin
You got to lose to know how to win
Friday, Nov 16, 2018 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Credit unions exist to help people, not make a profit. It is this motto of ‘People Helping People’ that sets credit unions apart. Credit unions exist as member owned, not-for- profit financial institutions that have a strong sense of community. Credit union staff collaborate with civic and local organizations and volunteer their time and talents to give back to their communities. In 2017, credit union staff across Illinois volunteered over *16,500 hours (*CU Social Good). If you are not yet a credit union member, go to ASmarterChoice.org to discover all the advantages that membership holds. Help to strengthen our communities from the inside out by becoming a credit union member today!
We tried to fill as many of the races as we could. In many counties, where there were all Republicans on the county board, now they’ve got a couple of Democrats because we ran people.
I asked the Pritzker campaign for a list of those types of winners. They didn’t have one, but said they were working on building one.
* So, I turned to the Illinois Democratic County Chairs’ Association, which handled the Blue Wave effort for Pritzker in Downstate counties. I was told it would take at least another week before they could pull together a full list…
There are obviously places where our successes mirror the successes of higher-level Democrats. In the west suburban regions, of course, we had strong victories.
In other areas, Champaign and Lake Counties for example, the results included significant takeovers of offices by the Democrats.
Obviously though, there are wide regions where Democrats continued to struggle, as they have for many election cycles.
The Pritzker campaign effort was instrumental in helping to boost a County Democratic Party presence all over the state - especially in areas where visibility and activity has needed support. Through the Pritzker campaign and allies, such as organized labor, many downstate county parties were able to push against Republicans. For example, the Pritzker support ensured that many counties had the first legitimate and organized GOTV effort in decades. It was critical.
So, 2018 was largely a benchmark and a testing ground for the IDCCA and our partners. You already understand all the dynamics the further south you get - a very unpopular GOP Governor, a President with a solid, vocal following, and all the other factors combined.
We’re still trying determine all the lessons we should learn. What we’re excited about is knowing that Governor-elect Pritzker and his team also want to learn from the campaign so he can govern to improve life for every Illinoisan, regardless of where they live.
* OK, but what about Pritzker’s contention to the NYT that the Democrats were able to pick up a seat or two on some previously all-GOP county boards?
I mean, that’s all close to what he said, but it’s not what he said. And “many” counties? Hmm.
If they ever do manage to find a way to show Pritzker wasn’t just pulling stuff out of thin air, I’ll let you know.
* Related…
* Bernie: Zahorik seeks to continue building blue wave: The new president of the Illinois Democratic County Chairs’ Association, hopes to extend her party’s gains, evidenced in the Nov. 6 election, to more parts of the state
A proposed bill that could give McHenry County residents the power to abolish townships with a majority vote at the polls cleared another hurdle this week in Springfield to make it to the Senate floor.
After a second reading Tuesday, House Bill 4637 passed the Senate Executive Committee, 11-6. Now in the hands of sponsor state Sen. Terry Link, D-Vernon Hills, the bill has advanced to the floor.
House co-sponsor state Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, said Link could call the bill on the floor for a vote as early as the week after Thanksgiving.
“I feel very good about where things stand,” McSweeney said. “And I think we’re going to pass it.”
The controversial effort to make it easier for private companies to take over public water systems, which Gov. Bruce Rauner signed into law about three months ago, was thrown into doubt on Thursday.
It came down to a missed deadline.
In August, Rauner signed an amendment extending a 2013 law that allows private companies such as Illinois American Water and Aqua Illinois to buy water utilities and spread the costs across their existing ratepayers. The amendment to the Illinois Water Systems Viability Act removed a limit on the size of water systems that private companies can buy and extended the act for another 10 years.
But the original act’s expiration date was June 1 of this year, two months before Rauner signed the amendment. That missed deadline led supporters back to the floor of the statehouse on Thursday to change the date of the law’s expiration to Aug. 9.
When several legislators critical of the law and the amendments spoke against both, the bill was pulled.
Counties would have more flexibility with sales tax dollars meant for public safety under a bill that has been sent to the Illinois House.
In counties were voters had previously approved tax hikes to fund public safety, the bill would give local officials the ability to use that revenue for other purposes, including to address mental health and substance abuse issues.
An Illinois teen won’t face felony eavesdropping charges for recording a talk with a school principal after prosecutors decided to drop the matter Thursday after the case got national attention.
Kankakee County State’s Attorney Jim Rowe dismissed the charges against 14-year-old Paul Boron. When Boron was 13, he was called into Manteno Middle School Principal David Conrad’s office. Boron told Conrad that he had been recording with his phone. The principal told Boron that he was committing a felony and ended the meeting. Two months later, Boron was charged with eavesdropping, which is a Class 4 felony in Illinois. […]
Illinois is what’s known as a two-party consent state, meaning that recording someone without permission in even a semi-private area is a Class 4 felony. The key term in the law is a “reasonable expectation of privacy.” Recording a phone call, for instance, would likely be a felony. […]
“The school district made the right decision by dismissing its charges against Paul. Paul spent a summer no 13 year old should have had to endure, with a felony hanging over his head simply because he recorded a conversation with his principals,” said Austin Berg, director of content strategy for the institute. “Supporters from around the nation rallied around Paul to share their concerns over how extreme the charge was. We’re grateful to those who jumped in to support Paul’s great legal defense and helped him get this happy ending.”
After hearing of the charges, advocates for the state’s existing consent rules said officials should not have weaponized the law in this case.
“To criminalize this young man and make a felon out of him is something we can unequivocally say is the wrong thing to do,” ACLU of Illinois attorney Ben Ruddell said.
Kankakee County’ State’s Attorney Jim Rowe said the law in its current state needs to be modified.
“I hope Springfield addresses this statute, as well as passing an updated cyberbullying statute,” he said. “Law enforcement needs clarity as they are tasked with making decisions on the front lines; it is easy to second guess prosecutors and police, but all state laws come from Springfield and they need to clean this one up.”
True, but in the meantime, state’s attorneys (and school districts) can try to use a little common sense. That obviously didn’t happen in this case until much damage was already done.
Mayoral candidate Bill Daley wants to create a Cabinet-level crime-fighting post and invest $50 million per year to staff a new City Hall department dedicated to reducing violence, he said Thursday. […]
A new deputy mayor for violence prevention who reports to the mayor is needed in order to put Chicago’s crime epidemic on the front burner, Daley said. “I want a deputy mayor every day in my face talking about what’s getting done to address this,” he said.
Create a redundant bureaucracy and fill it with bureaucrats. Brilliant!
* Instead of dumping money into a press-pop, maybe he should use it for this sort of stuff…
• [Daley] will work with local funders to raise additional money each year to scale promising diversion programs like Chicago CRED and Heartland Alliance’s READI program that put at-risk youth on a path to legitimate work through training and intensive counseling.
• Get ahead of the consent decree by requiring 40 hours of annual training for all police officers starting in 2019 in areas such as the use of force, de-escalation tactics, implicit bias, and understanding reasonable suspicion. […]
• Allocate additional funds to fully staff gang units with talented officers skilled in gathering intelligence. […]
• De-politicize and make transparent the promotion process within the Police Department, providing regular opportunities for good officers to build new skills and move into leadership positions.
But the only mental health approach is for police, not the community at large.
* This isn’t really “new” news because he said it during the campaign on several occasions…
Billionaire Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker — who pumped a record $171.5 million of his personal fortune into his winning campaign for Illinois governor — will forgo his state salary, his staff said.
Considering state government’s annual spending is nearly $38.5 billion, the $177,412 annual salary Illinois pays its governor is a drop in the bucket. But the Hyatt hotel heir takes office next year facing steep financial challenges — the state’s sitting on at least $7.5 billion in unpaid bills — and refusing a salary sends a message to lawmakers and voters as he starts addressing them. […]
To forgo their salary, governors just fill out paperwork through the state comptroller’s office, which is in charge of the state’s checkbook.
“That’s the way it works with Gov. Rauner, he just doesn’t get a check,” said Jamey Dunn, a spokeswoman for the comptroller’s office.
* The Question: What other symbolic gestures should the incoming governor make? And since it’s Friday, I’ve decided that snark should be strongly encouraged.
Friday, Nov 16, 2018 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Members of the Senate did the right thing by voting to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of SB2641.
Under this bill, car rental platforms would no longer be allowed to skirt safety regulations designed to keep unsafe vehicles off the road. Legislators on both sides of the aisle should be applauded for being proactive in preventing tragedy.
They also deserve praise for recognizing the unfair nature of letting car rental platforms operate tax free, even though the vehicles they profit from contribute to both airport and neighborhood parking congestion as well as roadway wear and tear. This bill will help ensure public roads, bridges and airports are maintained safely, while guaranteeing fair competition and protections for all consumers.
Friday, Nov 16, 2018 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Illinois consumers can choose from several different natural gas plans from more than 30 competitors. When shopping for the best plan, it’s important to understand the plan options. Below are 5 of the most common types.
1. Fixed Price: Most popular option. Locks in unchanging price per unit for contract duration, usually from 3 months to 2 years.
2. Capped Price: Similar to a fixed price but allows for a price reduction if the market price of natural gas drops.
3. Monthly Variable Price: The price per unit changes each month based on the market price and the supplier’s plan details.
4. Seasonal Price: Provides a fixed price for the winter with a variable price in the summer.
5. Flat Bill: Provides a fixed total cost each month regardless of usage, and typically set for a year.
Once you know the basic types of plans, you look at other variables such as contract length. More than 36,000 Illinois residents have found their natural gas solution from Direct Energy, a natural gas and electric retail energy company.
* We talked a bit yesterday about Governor-elect Pritzker’s new health-related transition committee. Stephanie Goldberg at Crain’s interviewed one of the co-chairs, Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago). Steans chairs the Senate Appropriations 1 Committee and has been very active on this issue…
Another focus area for the committee is the social service sector, particularly mental health and substance use treatment, which Steans says has been “decimated” over the last several years.
“We have been underinvesting in those (areas) and really need to determine how we can get people access to those services when they need them,” she said.
That’s very true. But it’s going to cost real money to heal these programs after years of neglect and deliberate undermining. It’s all part of the “hollowing out” of government that goes back to the Rod Blagojevich days. RRB always wanted to create new programs, but he wouldn’t ever propose a realistic revenue source. So, what was in place was often disregarded and allowed to whither and/or die on the vine. And then Rauner came along and all heck broke loose.
Governors generally win plaudits for coming up with new ideas. For once, I’d like to see a governor sort out what works and what doesn’t and fully fund what works and de-fund or fix what doesn’t.
Rauner’s HealthChoice Illinois, the state’s overhauled Medicaid managed care program, is another initiative the industry is watching closely. The program, in which private insurers administer Medicaid benefits, has received mixed reviews since it launched in January, with detractors citing proposed rate cuts to medical suppliers and insurers not providing adequate access for members in certain areas.
“There are ways to improve (the program) without undermining the care coordination work that’s been done,” Steans said. It’s about “moving away from trying to control costs to saying, we need to get people the right care at the right time in the right setting. That way, you can provide much more preventive (services) and make sure you’re holding accountable the (Medicaid managed care organizations) and the providers for quality outcomes . . . which, long-term, does reduce costs.”
Sen. Steans is right that preventive care does save money in the long-term. But it costs more in the short-term.
* Back in 1998, Sen. Chris Lauzen (R-Aurora) ran for comptroller. He won the primary, but lost the general to Dan Hynes. His Republican primary opponent ran a radio ad claiming Lauzen wasn’t a certified CPA, and after the election was over he attempted to have his named changed to “Christopher J. Lauzen, CPA.” He didn’t succeed.
Lauzen chose to run for reelection in 2002 rather than run for comptroller again. He ran for Congress and lost and then ran successfully for Kane County Board Chairman, where he is today.
* But should Comptroller Susana Mendoza win her Chicago mayor’s race, Gov. Pritzker would appoint her replacement and a special election would be held in 2020. So, Lauzen has apparently decided to plan ahead. He filed this paperwork earlier in the week…
* It’s not “illegal” to delete somebody’s Facebook comment, particularly the two highlighted here. What a weird thing to say…
Commenters on state Rep.-elect Anne Stava-Murray‘s Facebook page have for weeks been disparaging House Speaker Mike Madigan. That’s no surprise given Democrat Stava-Murray campaigned saying she wouldn’t vote to re-elect Madigan as speaker. But some of the social-media rhetoric has gone over the top, including inciting violence. Of Madigan, one commenter wrote, “Can’t we just drag him out into the street and beat him within an inch of his life…” Another said “Throw the b*st*rd out through a window about six floors up maybe he will get the hint it’s time to go.”
Stava-Murray told POLITICO she doesn’t delete comments because “it’s illegal to do so” if they’re from constituents. She didn’t push back to condemn the comments either because she said she didn’t see them. Stava-Murray, who is manager of the Facebook page, said she only looks at the comments at the top of the feed when she logs on. It wasn’t until after talking to POLITICO that she responded to the “beat him” comment, writing, “Let’s try to keep it peaceful. Not trying to invite violence here, just phone calls to reps.”
That may be enough to calm concerns by anyone who saw the posts that Stava-Murray takes her social-media messaging seriously.
The newly elected Rep has been calling lawmakers and encouraging them to vote against Madigan as speaker. Stava-Murray says it’s what her constituents want. She sending a message that a change in leadership is necessary given complaints last year about sexual harassment on Capitol Hill.
Today, Governor-elect JB Pritzker announced the formation and members of the Healthy Children and Families Committee of the transition team at Children’s Home and Aid, the first social service agency JB visited while considering his run for governor.
The committee is the third of several working groups of the transition made up of subject-matter experts who will advise and guide the incoming Pritzker-Stratton administration. The Healthy Children and Families Committee will be chaired by state Sen. Heather Steans, Howard Brown Health President and CEO David Munar, and Children’s Home and Aid President and CEO Nancy Ronquillo and consist of 36 members.
“Our transition’s Healthy Children and Families Committee will focus on how we should rebuild social services, identify ways we can help children and families build better lives, and expand health care in this state,” said Governor-elect JB Pritzker. “Over the last few years, state funding for community organizations was cut and families were no longer receiving the services they needed to thrive, but we’re going to reverse course. As governor, I’ll be their partner, and together, we’ll confront challenges head on so families and children can thrive.”
HEALTHY CHILDREN AND FAMILIES COMMITTEE MEMBERS
State Senator Heather Steans co-chairs the transition’s Healthy Children and Families Committee and has represented the 7th district in the Senate since 2008. Steans chairs the Appropriations I Committee and the Special Committee on Oversight of Medicaid Managed Care, vice chairs the Appropriations II Committee and serves on the Executive, Environment and Conservation, Government Reform and Human Services committees. She has passed legislation to bring marriage equality to Illinois, reform the state’s Medicaid program, enact significant nursing home reform and improve the environment by reducing mercury waste, creating commercial composting capabilities and banning microbeads. She also passed the Equal Rights Amendment in 2018, making Illinois the 37th state to ratify it and secured the passage of legislation that ensures Illinois remains a state where women can safely and legally exercise their right to choose.
David Munar co-chairs the transition’s Healthy Children and Families Committee and has served as president and CEO of Howard Brown Health since 2014. Munar has focused on ensuring the delivery of excellent patient services, strengthening finances and operations, and positioning the Midwest’s largest LGBTQ organization for long-term sustainability and growth. Prior to Howard Brown, Munar honed his career at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago where he held several positions, including president and CEO. He serves on the boards of the Cook County Health and Hospital System, the Illinois Primary Health Care Association, AllianceChicago, AIDS United, and the Black AIDS Institute. In 2007, he helped launch a national coalition that led to the National HIV/AIDS Strategy unveiled by President Obama in July 2010.
Nancy Ronquillo co-chairs the transition’s Healthy Children and Families Committee and has served as president and CEO of Children’s Home & Aid since 2001. Ronquillo has been a leader in the human services field for over four decades. She has served as the founding chair of Children’s Home Society of America and Illinois Partners for Human Service, an 800+ member statewide advocacy organization. Ronquillo was named American Business Woman of the Year and received the Woman of Distinction Award. She serves on both national and local boards, including the Children’s Home Society of America and National Veterans Arts Museum (NVAM). Ronquillo serves on the local boards of Chicago Thrive Leadership Council, Chicago Alliance for Collaborative Effort, Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management and Advisory Board and the Chicago Horse Center. She is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago.
Lisa Morrison Butler, Commissioner, Chicago Department of Family and Support Services
Pat Comstock, Executive Director, The Health Care Council of Illinois
Deb Conroy, State Representative, Illinois General Assembly
Esther Corpuz, CEO, Alivio Medical Center
Chris Cox, Executive Director, Hoyleton Youth and Family Services
Ryan Croke, Executive Director, Illinois Centers for Independent Living
Risa Davis, Vice President of Corporate Development, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago
Andrea Durbin, President, Illinois Collaboration on Youth
Theresa Eagleson, Executive Director, University of Illinois, Office of Medicaid Innovation
Sara Feigenholtz, State Representative, Illinois General Assembly
When Colorado voted in 2012 to legalize recreational marijuana, Gov. John Hickenlooper was against it.
To do something no other state had, in opposition of federal law, was a daunting task. Fast-forward six years and his perspective has changed.
“The things we most feared — a peak in teenage consumption, a peak in overall consumption, people driving while high — we haven’t seen,” Hickenlooper said Wednesday, speaking at a lunchtime event of the Economic Club of Chicago. “I’m not quite there to say this is a great success, but the old system was awful.” […]
He also recommended putting strict limits on edibles, going as far as restricting in each dose the allotted concentration of THC, the chemical that gets users high. He warned against overtaxing the drug and driving users back to the black market.
J.B. Pritzker says he supports legalizing recreational marijuana in Illinois, but the state of Iowa has no intention of doing the same right now. If Illinois legalizes it in the future, some in the Quad Cities worry about the drug making its way across the river into Iowa.
Illinois and Iowa are only 5 to 10 minute drives from one to the other if you live in or near the Quad Cities, so Scott County Sheriff Tim Lane thinks it is reasonable to assume the drug will make its way to his home state.
The case for treating pot like alcohol, with licensed retailers and minimum age requirements, has a good deal of logic behind it. But what’s the hurry?
The hurry is people like me have been waiting for this moment all of their adult lives. But, either way, it’s not like a bill is gonna pass in a day. This is too new for that to happen. If the process is indeed too rushed, then say something. Otherwise, sit down, Tribune.
For politicians, the chief appeals of allowing the legal sale and possession of cannabis for mere enjoyment is that (a) it would bring in revenue from taxes and fees, and (b) it would please an energetic constituency.
How about (c) it’s the right thing to do because it puts illegal drug cartels out of business, and (d) will create legitimate jobs where they do not currently exist? Just stop it, already.
* And Bruce Rushton wants to give Secretary of State Jesse White the responsibility of legalizing marijuana because his office does such a good job with drivers licenses…
Jesse White, master that he is in issuing driver’s licenses and plates at light speed, surely can do better than the legislature. For one thing, folks seem to trust him. For another, he understands customer service. He knows how to collect money. And he also, likely, wouldn’t want the job, given that he’s said he opposes recreational pot, which is all the more reason to appoint him state marijuana czar – never let someone who says they want to be a drug dealer become a drug dealer. So, let’s just hand it over to White and let him figure out the details. We could all be stoned by the Fourth of July, and that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.
Responding to concerns over allegations that the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation paid millions for a stovepipe hat that may not have actually belonged to President Abraham Lincoln, State Senator and Legislative Audit Commission Co-Chair Jason Barickman and State Representative Tim Butler (R-Springfield) are calling for an audit to review the financial relationship between the foundation and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum (ALPLM).
“The foundation is asking the state for millions of dollars to cover the purchase of artifacts, including the hat that has been heavily scrutinized,” said Sen. Barickman. “Before we can make a decision on that, we need to better understand the financial connection between the foundation and the ALPLM, as well as what agreements are in place governing purchases made by the foundation.”
“Even after the Illinois House hearing, many questions still remain about the relationship of the Foundation with the Presidential Museum and the money which has been raised for this state agency,” said Representative Butler. “This audit will hopefully shed light on the operations of the foundation and help us plan a path forward to the goal we all desire: ensuring the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is a world-class institution.”
Barickman and Butler said that an audit of how state funds were spent will shed light on whether taxpayer money was misspent or mismanaged. The process may help determine if the foundation bought the famed hat from a former member of the board for $6.5 million without first authenticating its true origin.
The audit could also assess the merits of the acquisition of the $25 million Barry and Louise Taper Collection. The foundation secured a loan in order to purchase the pieces; however, a balance of more than $9 million remains. The loan is due in October 2019.
An audit resolution, SR2179 has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Barickman, and an identical resolution, HR1300, has been filed in the House by Rep. Butler. If either is passed by its chamber, the Auditor General will conduct an audit and report his findings to the Legislative Audit Commission.
I’d also like to see the loan itself looked into. Who provided it? What are the specific terms? How was it negotiated and by whom?
Thursday, Nov 15, 2018 - Posted by Advertising Department
[The following is a paid advertisement.]
Illinois’ clean energy economy is here but there’s still more we can, and must, do.
In 2016, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition championed passage of the bipartisan Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA), the biggest clean energy breakthrough in the state’s history. From Carbondale to Peoria to Chicago and everywhere in between, FEJA is already building a new economy and reshaping Illinois’ energy landscape by reducing pollution, keeping energy bills affordable, and creating new jobs.
But there’s still more the General Assembly can do to make Illinois a leader in clean energy. That’s why earlier this year, the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition launched “Listen. Lead. Share. A Conversation About Winning a Clean, Equitable Energy Future.”
Over the last 10 months, local residents, community leaders and businesses participated in 58 Listen. Lead. Share. events across Illinois to discuss how Illinois can:
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Well. According to several sources, the bomb threat at the Capitol on Wednesday was prompted by a man named Tom who called the tourism desk to ask about visitors. The woman thought he said “bomb,” not Tom. #twill
* By the way, I asked the secretary of state’s spokesman why only the third and fourth floors were evacuated yesterday. I mean, couldn’t the would-be bomber (or, in this case, the Tomer) have been lying about where he placed the device?
I was told that these threats are taken on a case-by-case basis and it was “determined early on in this process that it was not a viable threat,” but that they nonetheless completed their due diligence.
I’m betting Tom asked about tours of the third and fourth floors.
* Back in high school, I was once put in charge of publicity for the annual school musical. I worked part-time at the town’s only radio station, so that was easy to deal with (and probably why I was handed the task). I met with the town’s newspaper publisher/editor and explained what I was doing and what I’d like and he said, “Where’s my ad?”
What?
“My newspaper ad. You want me to run a story you have to buy an ad.”
This is Chicago, after all, so even a billionaire’s campaign had to contend with a shakedown of sorts. A steady flow of vendors came knocking at the campaign’s doors, sometimes with outrageous offers, said Quentin Fulks, who oversaw the Pritzker campaign budget.
In one case, Fulks said an owner of a local publication, which he would not name, asked that the Pritzker campaign pay $300,000 to bankroll the individual’s personal book project that had nothing to do with the campaign or Pritzker.
“We told them ‘no’ for the book and they got mad. The same person owns a newspaper publication and ran some pretty negative stuff against us when we didn’t agree to publish,” Fulks said. “You can make a lot of political enemies when people think you have an unlimited budget and you have to tell them ‘no.’ People take that really personally, they feel offended.”
The Senate has voted to override a veto of legislation encouraging immigrants who are victims of crime to cooperate with police.
Senate President John Cullerton’s plan was approved 40-12 Wednesday. It would set a 90-day deadline for law enforcement officials to complete paperwork immigrants need for visas to stay in this country.
The Chicago Democrat says it’s prompted by an illegal sex trade which lures or forces girls and women from other countries to come to the U.S.
Federal law established the visas for cooperative victims. Cullerton says some law enforcement agencies delay completion or ignore it.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed the proposal in August. He says setting a deadline could result in mistakes or perjury.
That was a pretty silly excuse by the governor to cover his politically motivated veto.
* The GOP was all about immigration this year and while it backfired in most of the suburbs, it did do the trick in some areas…
Voters in more than a dozen counties recently approved measures urging the state not to pass further gun control measures. And in several counties, the proposals added immigration to the mix.
Some of these ballot questions asked if their county should become a “sanctuary county” for gun owners. This language evokes the term “sanctuary cities,” including Chicago, which have immigration policies that clash with federal guidelines.
In Logan County, in the central part of the state, the ballot question linked immigration and gun control in an even more direct way. The question was a mouthful:
Shall Logan become a ’sanctuary county’ for all firearms unconstitutionally prohibited by the government of the State of Illinois, for everyone except for undocumented immigrants, in that Logan County will prohibit its employees from enforcing the unconstitutional actions of the state government.
Senate President John Cullerton said the legislative push, Senate Bill 34, is necessary because of complaints from immigration advocates that certain local state’s attorneys failed to ever fill out the forms, thus denying immigrants a chance at the visas. Cullerton was unable, however, to cite a specific instance.
“If the authorities don’t think the person qualifies because (they) didn’t cooperate they can say that in the report,” Cullerton said. “All this does is set a 90-day deadline for finishing the report … it closes a loophole in the process.”
Cullerton said Rauner rejected the proposal “over the summer, in the heat of an election campaign with immigration being a political buzzword.”
In his veto message, Rauner called the plan an “unfunded mandate” that would put additional strain on already-stressed law enforcement agencies, subjecting them to “significant liability, even for good faith efforts to certify. Requiring certification within a tight timeline but also subjecting law enforcement to perjury if a mistake is made is an unacceptably risky position to put law enforcement in.”
The bill gained steam from May, when it passed the Senate with 37 votes. The override motion succeeded yesterday with 40 votes.
“Just as lawmakers have come together to raise awareness and fight back against human trafficking, we came together to make sure the existing process works for these victims,” Cullerton said in a statement after the override. “This system was created to empower victims to come forward knowing they’ll be protected if they help us bring to justice the people behind these horrible crimes.”
The federal government in 2000 created special immigration visas for victims of human trafficking and other crimes — such as abduction, kidnapping, female genital mutilation, incest, murder, sexual assault and slave trade — who work with police.
“Immigrants should not be living in fear or hiding in the shadows. Teachers, business owners, social workers, childcare givers, police officers, firefighters, communities depend on them,” state Rep. Juliana Stratton, D-Chicago, said at a press conference prior to the Senate override. “We have to ensure that victims of crime feel safe reporting those crimes to the appropriate authorities regardless of citizenship and when crimes go unreported, the perpetrators of those crimes go unsolved, making communities less safe for the victims and less safe for everyone else.”
* Related…
* Cullerton: Trafficking victims deserve our help, not hateful rhetoric
The Senate has overturned a veto by Gov. Bruce Rauner on a measure that would regulate so-called peer-to-peer car-rental businesses.
The vote Wednesday was 39-12 to require the companies to comply with the same safety standards and pay the same taxes as traditional rental-car companies.
Turo and Getaround are examples of businesses that provide online apps for people to rent cars from other people.
Republican Rauner says the measure is too restrictive and could “smother” growth of an innovative new industry. He suggested a rewrite of the regulations.
Illinois lawmakers are set to consider legislation this week that would limit the use of antibiotics in food-producing animals, a practice that has been shown to fuel drug-resistant bacteria that can be dangerous to humans.
On Thursday, the Illinois Senate’s Agriculture and Public Health committees are scheduled to hold subject matter hearings on a bill introduced earlier this year by state Sen. Daniel Biss that would further restrict antibiotic use on the nearly 20,000 Illinois farms with beef cattle, hogs or pigs.
Experts from the World Health Organization have for years warned that the routine use of antibiotics on animals that aren’t sick leads to drug-resistant bacteria that can have deadly consequences for humans.
Each year, millions of Americans get sick with antibiotic-resistant infections, and at least 23,000 of them die as a result, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A recent study estimates that by 2050, drug-resistant bacteria could kill more people worldwide than cancer kills today.
…Adding… The hearing was postponed due to weather.
Meanwhile, lawmakers started moving a bill aimed at the Chicago mayoral race. A plan that cleared a House committee would open a special election for Cook County board president to more people if Toni Preckwinkle is elected mayor. Now, only Cook County commissioners could run for president if she won and left the board president job.
Also, lawmakers are trying to negotiate a compromise on dueling proposals aimed at companies such as Sterigenics in west suburban Willowbrook that emit dangerous ethylene oxide gas.
Separate bills from House Republican leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs and Democratic state Rep. Carol Sente of Vernon Hills would limit and eventually ban use of the chemical in Illinois. Lawmakers say they’re trying to come up with legislation by the end of the month.
Also on Wednesday, the Senate failed to override the governor’s veto of a measure that would remove the state from the Crosscheck voter registration system. But senators are expected to try again for an override. Democrats say the measure would help protect voter information, but Republicans say the extra check is needed to make sure voters aren’t also registered elsewhere.
Four years after an expert found that the Illinois Department of Corrections failed to provide adequate medical care to prisoners across the state, conditions are “either no better or in fact worse in 2018.” Most disturbing, the medical professionals who conducted a new examination in 2018 finds that the poor care is resulting in deaths that could be prevented. Dr. Mike Puisis and his team – in a damning report filed in federal court today – examined 33 deaths in IDOC facilities. They found that one-third – 12 deaths – were preventable. Another 7 were possibly preventable and the record-keeping in 5 cases were so poor or had missing documents so that the experts could not determine if the death was preventable.
The stories of the preventable deaths are heart-breaking. In one instance, a 24-year-old with mental illness swallowed two plastic utensils (two sporks). Despite being seen by medical personnel for symptoms including abdominal pain and the inability to eat, he went untreated. The patient lost more than 50 pounds and was hospitalized only after being found unresponsive, where he died. The utensils were discovered during an autopsy.
“We knew four years ago that prisoners in Illinois were subject to needless pain and suffering,” said Camille Bennett, staff counsel at the ACLU of Illinois. “This latest report shows that the lack of adequate care is lethal. Illinois must fix this problem.”
The report by Dr. Mike Pusis and a team of court-appointed experts was filed today in federal court as part of on-going litigation in Lippert v. Godinez, a lawsuit challenging medical care in the IDOC system. It builds on a report filed in 2015 (conducted in 2014) by Dr. Ronald Shansky and a team of medical experts.
“This report tells a remarkably ugly story,” added Harold Hirshman, Senior Counsel at the Dentons law firm and counsel in the case. “Once again, a carefully-drafted, professional report concludes that the quality of care provided to Illinois prisoners is atrocious and leads to death.”
Among other detailed findings, the new expert report criticizes DOC for not having enough qualified physicians. At Dixon Correctional Center, for example, 20% of the healthcare positions at the facility are vacant. Staffing shortages exist in every facility operated by IDOC.
The filing of the expert report is the latest development in Lippert, et. al, v. Ghosh.
Illinois moved closer to raising the minimum age to buy cigarettes, vaping devices and other tobacco products to 21 after the state Senate on Wednesday voted to override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of the plan. […]
Under the tobacco legislation, it would be illegal to sell tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes and vaping devices, to anyone under the age of 21. Retailers who violate the law could be fined, but the state would no longer penalize those caught possessing tobacco while underage.
Chicago boosted the minimum legal tobacco age from 18 to 21 in 2016. Rauner this summer vetoed the plan to do the same thing statewide, but the Senate voted 36-19 on Wednesday to override him, sending the legislation to the House for final review. The 36-vote tally was the bare minimum supporters needed to override Rauner, and their success in the House is far from guaranteed.
The measure, which also raised the age to purchase vaping devices, would make Illinois the sixth state in the country to raise the age, which supporters believe will reduce the number of high school students who use tobacco products.
* One bit thing grand juries do is issue subpoenas. So this was bound to happen…
A downstate grand jury has subpoenaed records from Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office and at least two more state agencies as part of a criminal investigation into fatal Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks at the Quincy veterans’ home, WBEZ learned Wednesday.
Rauner’s administration surrendered copies of the Adams County grand jury subpoenas in response to a series of open-records requests.
The grand jury’s demand for Legionnaires’-related records tied to outbreaks at the Illinois Veterans Home went to the governor’s office and to the Illinois Departments of Veterans’ Affairs and Labor. Last week, WBEZ reported that the grand jury had also subpoenaed the state public health department.
The subpoenas, which went out Oct. 25, demand that Rauner’s administration turn over the documents by Thursday. No one has been charged with any wrongdoing relating to the outbreaks.
The subpoena sought a sweeping array of public health records about Legionnaires’ cases at the Illinois Veterans Home, where nearly 70 residents and staff have been sickened since 2015, with 14 deaths linked to the illness.
The query for records also sought information about, among other things, agency procedures for providing notice about Legionnaires’ at the facility and any communications by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration and officials in other locales that have experienced big Legionnaires’ outbreaks, including Flint, Mich.
Illinois senators have rejected Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of legislation allowing for larger damage awards in lawsuits against the state.
Sen. Michael Hastings is the sponsor of the measure which would raise the $100,000 limit on damage awards to $2 million. The Orland Park Democrat and military veteran noted the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at the Quincy veterans’ home where 14 residents have died in the past three years. Families of several deceased victims have filed lawsuits against the state.
Hastings contended that the administration fell short in preventing the problem and notifying the public about what was happening. Rauner has repeatedly said his staff did everything it could and followed national experts’ advice.
Rauner rewrote the bill in an amendatory veto and suggested a $300,000 limit.
The silliest lament we’ve heard this week, from the editorial page of the other big Chicago paper, is that the failure of Chicago and Illinois to win Amazon HQ2 was a repeat of the state’s failure to win Foxconn, the electronics manufacturer now building a plant across the border in Wisconsin.
As if any sensible person cannot see by now what a bad deal Wisconsin struck to get Foxconn — and how lucky Illinois was to lose that bidding war.
The real lesson of Foxconn, worth remembering as we consider what else Chicago and Illinois could have done to win Amazon HQ2, is that there’s a limit to how much a community or state should give away in return. At some point, all those tax breaks and financial incentives become a burden on the local taxpayer, a drag on the local economy and cancel out the value of whatever jobs are gained.
We don’t yet know why Amazon took a pass on Chicago, though it’s pretty clear one big negative was our state’s dysfunctional government during the tenure of Gov. Bruce Rauner. It is telling that the last big question Amazon executives put to officials in New York — the governor and the mayor — before awarding Queens a part of the HQ2 prize was whether they could stop bickering long enough to see the project through.
But to the extent that this was about money, with the subsidies of $2.25 billion offered by Illinois and Chicago falling short, so be it. A prudent city and state, confident in their many strengths — excellent universities, a top international airport, a superb workforce and the like — can’t just write bigger and bigger checks.
The taxpayer costs of these two deals is high, both in absolute terms and on a per-job basis, contrary to Amazon’s artful spin. Together, we believe they exceed $4.6 billion and the cost per job in New York is at least $112,000, not the $48,000 the company used in a selective and incomplete press release calculation.
Amazon’s statement contains a classic example of cost-benefit apples and oranges. Citing only one New York State incentive, it says the sum ‘equates to $48,000 per job for 25,000 jobs with an average wage of over $150,000…’ Of course, wages cannot be compared to tax breaks since employees pay only a small percentage of their salaries as taxes to offset the tax breaks. And the cost per job in New York is actually at least $112,000 but that is not a full accounting.
