Mayor Lori Lightfoot acknowledged Friday she will have no choice but to raise property taxes — which were more than doubled by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel — if her agenda falls flat in the General Assembly’s fall veto session.
Lightfoot’s heavy-lift requests for a graduated real estate transfer tax and a casino gambling fix — either through city-state ownership of a Chicago casino or a revised tax structure — face long odds in Springfield amid a blockbuster corruption scandal that has spread from Chicago and the [west] suburbs to Springfield. […]
“It’ll be very difficult to avoid a property tax increase if we do not get help from Springfield. … There are limited tools that a mayor can use to generate substantial revenue. Property tax is really chief among them,” the mayor told the Sun-Times.
“It’s certainly my hope to avoid a large property tax increase. I’ve heard that message loud and clear — whether it’s people coming up to me on the street, our budget town halls, people who filled out the surveys. They don’t want a property tax increase. That has become a real sticking point for people. But if we don’t get those two things, our options are severely limited.”
Mayor Lori Lightfoot is aiming at another group to help her close a yawning city budget gap: restaurants and their customers.
A few hours after unveiling a $40 million tax on rides from Uber, Lyft and other ride-sharing firms, Lightfoot’s office confirmed that she’ll also seek a $20 million new tax on restaurants.
The quarter-percentage-point levy would apply to all food and beverages sold at retail establishments. Combined with levies by other governments including Cook County and the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority, the tax on restaurant bills would rise to as much as 11.75 percent.
Federal investigators are looking into allegations that Commonwealth Edison hired multiple politically connected employees and consultants in exchange for favorable government actions, including electricity rate increases, WBEZ has learned.
A source involved in the investigation said authorities believe many of the clout hires at the state’s largest electric utility got paid but did little or no work, and some of them have ties to Illinois House Speaker and state Democratic Party Chairman Michael Madigan of Chicago.
In another previously undisclosed development, agents investigating those hires are also probing the role played by Jay Doherty, a longtime lobbyist for ComEd and president of the City Club of Chicago, the source said. The City Club is a prominent public affairs speaking forum that’s a regular stop for Illinois’ top politicians. […]
On Thursday, the lobbying firm of Michael Kasper, a top legal aide and advisor to Madigan, informed the state that it had ended its relationship with John Hooker, a lobbyist with decades-long ties to ComEd.
Hooker crafted ComEd’s Statehouse comeback from the abyss with Mike McClain. He later lobbied for ComEd through Kasper’s firm. He has no other listed affiliations on the state lobbyist list.
Doherty is still listed as a registered ComEd lobbyist as of 1:58 this afternoon.
*** UPDATE *** Attorney General Kwame Raoul is scheduled to speak at the City Club next week. I asked his press office if he still planned to attend in light of today’s WBEZ report…
Yes, we still plan to speak before the City Club on Monday. We are looking forward to the opportunity to share updates from our office with attendees, as well as the media.
One of the East St. Louis fire houses was closed by city leaders and nine firefighters were given notice of layoff letters on Tuesday. […]
The city had fallen more than $2.2 million behind in contributions to the firefighter’s pension fund. The Fire Pension Board voted in September to initiate the “intercept process,” which allows Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s office to take money that would otherwise have been spent on things such as payroll, public safety and sanitation, and deposit it directly toward the under-funded retirement benefits. […]
Its Police Pension Board also has applied for a revenue intercept to recover a $1.79 million shortfall in its benefits fund. […]
“Unfortunately, with 100 percent of the city’s revenues being redirected to the police and fire pensions, we are faced with the difficult task of strategically reducing some services in order to meet our financial obligations for the next few months,” [East St. Louis City Manager Brooke Smith] said.
* East St. Louis is a clear outlier, but it’s a prime example why local governments had to be forced by the state to stop ignoring their funding obligations…
The firefighters pension was only 9% funded at the end of 2018, with an unfunded liability of $65.2 million, according to data from the Illinois Department of Insurance. The police pension was healthier, but still had only 31% of its needed funds and a total pension debt of $39 million.
The firefighters’ union contract ended in 2015, and the union and city have not come to terms on a new one. However, the old agreement, which both the city and union still honor, says the city must maintain 58 firefighters.
A memorandum agreement passed in 2015 allowed the department to reduce staff by 25%, but that memorandum expired in 2016.
“Layoffs are not going to be financially beneficial to the city because either way they’ll have to pay the money back because of the contract,” said Gregory, who was one of 11 firefighters rehired from a layoff after the city received a federal grant in 2011. “If you’re going to pay us you might as well have a firefighter on duty.
This isn’t new: Mike Madigan’s corrupt Democratic Machine has a grip on our state. For years, Madigan has taxed our families, exploited our workforce, and built a political empire with no means of control.
And his partnership with J.B. Pritzker now gives him endless funding to advance his liberal agenda at the expense of our state’s future.
So Rich: how much would you pay to fire Mike Madigan from office?
At the Illinois Republican Party, we’re fed up with Mike. And we’re taking action.
While we don’t have millions like Madigan and Pritzker, we have loyal supporters throughout the state who understand the value of donating to make a difference.
That’s why, this month, we’re offering t-shirts to prove it!
With a $25 contribution to our FIRE MIKE MADIGAN Fund, we’ll send you one of these great t-shirts to show that you’re part of the movement to fix our state.
Get a shirt today before they’re gone! We have a limited supply and lots of orders to fill.
A federal prosecutor says criminal charges are expected to be filed against “many” figures involved in the failure of a century-old Bridgeport bank that made tens of millions of dollars in bad loans — until it was shut down soon after the bank’s president was found hanged in a customer’s bedroom.
Many customers of the failed bank, Washington Federal Bank for Savings, had connections to the Daley family and the 11th Ward Regular Democratic Organization, run by Cook County Commissioner John Daley and his nephew, Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Netols disclosed the anticipated criminal charges over the collapsed bank during a hearing in a bankruptcy-fraud case against attorney Robert M. Kowalski. […]
“This case is part of a larger investigation,” Netols told U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall on Tuesday. “We are working toward charging . . . other individuals with the failure of a financial institution. The number of defendants would be many more.”
Marin also asked the candidates if they drink Malort, a booze that’s popular with some millennials and hipsters. None of the candidates stood up for the liquor.
“Only under duress,” Lightfoot said. “That is the worst-tasting alcohol ever.”
Sources said the two sides met for a few hours and broke for a CTU rally. The mayor’s frustrated forces were also told CTU President Jesse Sharkey had a dinner to attend and union officials had a conference this weekend.
As subscribers know, that conference would be the Illinois Federation of Teachers convention in Rosemont, which starts today.
“I’m concerned that there’s not a sense of urgency to get a deal done,” Lightfoot said Thursday in a joint interview with CPS CEO Janice Jackson on “Chicago Tonight.” Lightfoot said CTU cut short bargaining Thursday morning after about three hours.
Responding on “Chicago Tonight,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey strongly refuted that claim and others.
“I lost track of the falsehoods,” Sharkey said about Lightfoot and Jackson’s interview. “It’s riddled with things that are not true.”
Sharkey says he spent all day at the negotiating table until he left for a rally, and even then, the CTU had its “entire rank and file negotiating team working on proposals. We had our lawyers there trading proposals back and forth,” he said. “We put in a hard day at the table.”
While thousands of Chicago Public Schools teachers took to the streets Thursday to strike for a contract that meets their demands, negotiators from both sides of the table tell Playbook they’ve made progress on one important issue — class size.
CPS has agreed to identify “schools in crisis in class-size needs,” according to a source within the Chicago Teachers Union. The school district also called for a joint CPS-CTU committee that would identify class size numbers regularly — maybe monthly — in schools with a greater need. On the table is about $9 million to cover such an effort, “a drop in the drop of the bucket” of CPS’ proposed $7.7 billion budget, the source said. “It’s the beginning of a discussion… It’s huge.”
Teachers marching past Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s house. The mayor has a table out across the street with coffee and donuts with a note that reads “I hear you.” One of the teachers handwrote her a message in response to the offering: “Smaller class sizes not donuts” #PutItInWritingpic.twitter.com/yeLjIdDpuZ
No matter how this strike ends, and it will, eventually, the Illinois political class should read another book to the people of Chicago, its suburbs and the rest of the state:
“The Road to Serfdom,” by F.A. Hayek, about free people losing liberty to authoritarian control.
And just who are the serfs in Illinois?
The property taxpayers, who are the serfs of the new Democratic machine. Because we serfs live to serve the masters, don’t we?
* This same lone teacher crossed the one-day CTU picket line in 2016, so I’m thinking he probably wasn’t too difficult to locate. Just sayin…
So I found him, the CPS teacher who crossed the picket lines. He’s in school today with students, not outside with colleagues. Here’s his story: https://t.co/02mOam97YX
First big (and still unanswered) Q: Who are “Associate A” or “Lobbyist B” involved in the federal case that’s hanging over state Sen. Martin Sandoval? Lawmakers want to know because they might have business with the secret sources. And lobbyists want to know because they probably share clients.
Um, there is no “Associate A” listed in the Sandoval search warrant. But, yeah, lots of people are definitely wondering about this line in the warrant…
2. Items related to CW1, Lobbyist A, and/or Lobbyist B.
Please, do not try guessing their identities in comments. I have enough to do without deleting comments and banning people.
The investigations expose the underside of Exelon’s strategy: To win the Springfield game, you have to play by Springfield rules. And Springfield rules require more than the generous campaign contributions Exelon reliably hands out. Companies seeking the big favors Exelon has sought from lawmakers need stronger bonds with House Speaker Madigan and underbosses like Sandoval. That means hiring relatives, doling out lobbying work to favored operatives and generally greasing the wheels of Madigan’s machine.
A company can get pretty greasy playing that game—not a good look when the feds are hunting down corruption. The probes already have rattled Exelon’s executive ranks. Anne Pramaggiore, head of Exelon’s regulated utilities business and a direct subordinate of CEO Chris Crane, left abruptly on Tuesday. Two weeks earlier, top ComEd lobbyist Fidel Marquez exited suddenly.
Exelon and ComEd won’t say if either departure is related to the probe. But Exelon directors set up a special committee of independent board members to oversee responses to investigators.
Pramaggiore’s move spooked investors, who sent Exelon shares down more than 4 percent on the news. They’re right to worry. Along with potential legal jeopardy, there’s also a strategic dimension to Exelon’s predicament.
* I suppose when you’re hunkered down during an active federal investigation, filing state campaign disclosure reports becomes a secondary priority. That or (just speculation here) he no longer has his records…
Already under the federal microscope, McCook Mayor Jeffrey Tobolski is now facing a $200 fine for failing to file a legally required campaign disclosure report.
That number could grow by $200 every day that the report is late, with a maximum fine amount of $5,000.
The quarterly report, covering money raised and spent from July 1 through Sept. 30, was due by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, and fines started to be assessed at midnight the next day, said Matt Dietrich, spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Elections.
This isn’t Tobolski’s first time missing a disclosure deadline, which is why the fine is that high. For a committee’s first violation, it’s $50 a day, $100 for the second, and $200 for the third.
Mike Madigan’s troubles a boon to lawyers — legal bills exceed $1.5 millionHouse Speaker Mike Madigan dipped into his campaign funds for more than $418,597 in legal fees over the past three months, bringing the total he has spent on lawyers since last year to more than $1.5 million.
The Southwest Side Democrat’s legal headaches heated up in February 2018 amid allegations made by political consultant Alaina Hampton that one of Madigan’s longtime political aides sent her barrages of unwanted texts.
And Madigan’s situation only worsened.
Since then, the longest serving statehouse speaker in the country has endured two federal lawsuits, the exodus of his former chief of staff and a key legislative ally amid harassment allegations, and a federal court affidavit first obtained by the Sun-Times in January revealed Madigan had been secretly recorded during a 2014 meeting with then-Ald. Danny Solis (25th) and a developer who wanted to build a hotel in Chinatown.
More than $1.1 million went to Hinshaw & Culbertson.
* And the Senate Democrats flatly denied this claim the other day…
Senate President John Cullerton repeatedly said that he wanted to make an “informed” decision about state Sen. Martin Sandoval’s leadership role before Sandoval resigned as chairman of the Illinois Senate Transportation Committee. […]
Cullerton had a lot more information than most Illinoisans, but declined to publicly sanction Sandoval in any way. In fact, Cullerton and Senate Democrats went to some length to keep information about the search warrant hidden. Senate Democrats initially released a redacted copy of the warrant. Later, after WBEZ filed a lawsuit to obtain the full warrant, Senate Democrats released the unredacted copy. It was only after that search warrant was released on Oct. 11 that Sandoval submitted a letter of resignation as chairman.
Put another way, Cullerton had a lot of information about what federal agents were looking for and did nothing. After the federal raid on Sept. 24, Cullerton played dumb.
From the Senate Democrats…
The Senate President was never shown the unredacted warrant or inventory. The FOIA officer handled those documents, and only the FOIA officer.
You may ask why? This is a firewall set up for instances like ongoing investigations.
It doesn’t appear the columnist checked in to see if what he was alleging had any basis in fact.
* Related…
* Editorial: No patience for problems: At the same time, other prominent politicians here have in the past not been as concerned about appearances and pending criminal investigations. Sometimes, they are indifferent to them. Pritzker, obviously, is not, and he’s made it clear that anyone who is compromised for whatever reason will be shunted aside at least until clouds of impropriety have dissipated.
* Chicago dominates competition for most red-light cameras: Chicago currently has 309 red-light cameras in the city, according to data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. At the peak of the program in 2010, there were 394. New York City has 164 cameras. Philadelphia is third, with 30 cameras. Phoenix follows with just 12. To put it in perspective, Gurnee, Illinois, has 15 red-light cameras.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot will seek to more than triple the tax charged on most solo ride-share patrons heading in and out of downtown Chicago as part of her plan to reduce congestion and raise much-needed money to shrink a massive estimated $838 million shortfall in the 2020 budget.
Lightfoot’s plan to bring in new revenue and curb traffic congestion would hike the tax on solo riders using services like Uber and Lyft elsewhere in the city by 74%. That’s despite the fact most outlying neighborhoods don’t face nearly the heavy traffic problems seen in the downtown area.
* From the mayor’s press release…
Based on peak congestion locations and times, the City is proposing a new variable Ground Transportation Tax (GTT) structure. Under the current GTT, a flat rate of $0.60 is assessed per trip citywide, and a $5.00 flat rate is assessed per trip in special zones (the airports, Navy Pier and McCormick Place). As part of an effort to incentivize shared rides to combat both congestion and rising vehicle emissions in Chicago as well as encourage use of higher efficiency modes of like transit downtown, the City proposes the following progressive structure:
Decreasing the GTT on all citywide shared ride-hailing trips from $0.60 per trip to $0.53 per trip.
Increasing the GTT on all citywide single ride-hailing trips from $0.60 per trip to $1.13 per trip.
Assessing a downtown zone surcharge, placing an additional $1.75 per trip for single rides and $0.60 per trip for shared rides.
No changes are proposed to the current $5 special zone fee, the $0.10 per trip accessibility fee or the $0.02 per trip administrative fee. […]
Representing areas among the highest density of trips citywide, the proposed structure will target ride-hailing trips in the downtown zone, a map of which can be found attached, during the hours of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays, when congestion is most prevalent. To ensure continued, reliable access for customers citywide—particularly for the south and west sides—the city’s progressive structure will offer a discount on shared trips in the neighborhoods. Shared trip requests on south and west sides can range upwards of 50 percent of all requests, in comparison to less than 30 percent on the north side and downtown.
“Lock Box” doesn’t interfere with putting the revenue into the general fund?
That’s a good question. Checking now.
…Adding… From a rideshare spokesperson, here are what $10 rides will look like after added fees…
Chicago Central Business District $13.00
Chicago Transit Deserts $11.25
Seattle Proposed $10.75
Rhode Island $10.70
Washington DC $10.60
Boston $10.20
Los Angeles $10.10
Money managers who invest retirement savings for 649 local police and fire pension funds in cities and towns across the state are mounting a fundraising effort to try and defeat Governor J.B. Pritzker’s proposal to consolidate their smaller funds into two combined funds.
According to an email leaked to WCIA, a former board member at the Illinois Public Pension Fund Association (IPPFA) is working to raise nearly half a million dollars to hire lobbyists to kill the pension proposal during the fall veto session at the statehouse.
“The retention of two or three lobbyist (sic) would be beneficial,” the email said, adding that the estimated “costs for a 12-month engagement would be approximately $480,000.”
Retired Addison police detective Dave Wall sent the fundraising email out to other IPPFA members and investment fund managers with a deadline for them to respond with a commitment to spend on lobbying by this Friday.
Unless the leaders slow it down, I’m kinda thinking they may not need any lobsters after veto session ends in less than a month.
* We’ve talked about this NPR Illinois poll before. It’s an online poll and it produced some surprisingly strong (32 percent) job approval numbers from Republicans for Gov. Pritzker. But, even if it’s in the ballpark, these are pretty strong numbers…
The results show 92 percent of Illinoisans support making mental health background checks more stringent. That’s about the same number as a similar survey from last year. Another 74 percent back the idea of banning assault weapons, a big jump from 2018. While there is a partisan split on that question, a majority of both Democrats and Republicans are in favor.
Meanwhile, 88 percent support requiring fingerprints to get a Firearms Owner’s Identification (FOID) card, and three out of four Illinoisans favor banning high capacity magazines. […]
Of the more than 1,000 people polled for the NPR Illinois UIS survey, over a quarter of those identified as being gun owners, which is in line with Illinois census data, and even a majority of gun owners say they support all of the proposals. That includes those who are located downstate, where gun rights are often a campaign issue.
The “strongly support” numbers are also pretty high, according to the poll. 54 percent strongly support banning high capacity magazines (64 percent total with just 15 percent strongly opposed), 55 percent strongly support an assault weapons ban (72 percent total with just 19 percent strongly opposed), 73 percent strongly support mental health background checks before purchases (92 percent total with 3 percent strongly opposed) and 69 percent strongly support making FOID applicants submit fingerprints (88 percent total with 6 percent strongly opposed).
Conventional wisdom is that the state of Illinois is on an irreversible road to decline, burdened with an aging population, rising taxes, staggering pension debt and residents fleeing to the borders.
That ain’t necessarily so, says a DePaul University economist. In a wonderfully contrary blog post on the website New Geography, which focuses on socioeconomic changes in in cities and other areas, he concludes that, despite its very real warts, the Land of Lincoln in many ways is still holding its own.
In the piece, William Sander, professor emeritus at DePaul’s Driehaus College of Business and Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, confesses right up front to the state’s economic woes.
Specifically, he notes, both the state and the Chicago metropolitan area have lost population lately, state gross domestic product growth has been 0.2 percentage points below the national average since 2010 and high school students have tended to move out of state for their freshman year of college.
Regarding population growth, it is important to point out that there has actually been negative domestic migration (more people leaving than entering) for most of the past century. At the same time, the state’s population doubled in size and the economy continued to grow. […]
While there has, in fact, been a net loss of college freshmen from Illinois to other states, there has not been a net loss of college students overall. One reason for this is that Illinois has a higher percentage of students in graduate and professional schools.
* The Question: Your “Move to Illinois” campaign slogans?
A program that offers cybersecurity expertise to the state’s 108 local election authorities in an effort to ensure election security will continue “indefinitely,” according to Illinois’ top elections official.
Illinois State Board of Elections Director Steve Sandvoss said his agency, in tandem with the Department of Innovation and Technology, will keep nine cyber navigators on the payroll to travel the state to help local election authorities with upgrading their cybersecurity infrastructure and practices.
Sandvoss told The Daily Line that the cyber navigators have completed the first phase of a multi-stage process. That first phase included identifying vulnerabilities in the systems of each of the state’s local election authorities. Some local elections agencies need more help than others, Sandvoss said.
“It’s a matter of working with those election authorities to address those vulnerabilities,” Sandvoss said. “And if they need money to do it, we have grant money that we got from the federal government. There’s an application process they can take advantage of to get money to pay for security upgrades that are needed.”
That $13.2 million [for cyber navigator programs] was Illinois’ share of $380 million Congress appropriated nationwide for election security in 2018. But now, as the 2020 elections approach, the U.S. House and Senate have been at loggerheads over how much to spend for additional election security.
The Democrat-controlled House has authorized $600 million, while the Republican-controlled Senate has agreed to just $250 million. […]
But Elizabeth Howard of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Democracy Program, said even the $600 million contained in the House plan wouldn’t be enough. She estimated the cost of securing the entire country’s election system at $2.2 billion.
That would encompass $750 million to replace “antiquated paperless voting machines” throughout the country, including $175 million in Illinois alone; $100 million for post-election audits over the next five years; $500 million for voter registration cybersecurity improvements; and $830 million to extend cyber navigator programs like the one in Illinois nationwide.
* Bernie’s column includes a story about Republican US Senate hopeful and Springfield surgeon Tom Tarter and also has the money wrapup…
The other candidates are former Lake County Sheriff MARK CURRAN; PEGGY HUBBARD of Belleville, who served in the Navy and worked for the IRS; and perennial candidate ROBERT MARSHALL, a radiologist from Burr Ridge.
Federal Election Commission reports show that Tarter, in the three-month period ending Sept. 30, raised more than $32,000 on top of the [$50,000] loan to himself, and had more than $74,000 on hand at the close of the period. Hubbard had raised more than $43,000 and had about $21,000 on hand. Curran loaned himself $10,000, raised a total of nearly $20,000 more, and ended the period with more than $23,000. Marshall, at the end of June, had less than $22,000.
Whoever wins the GOP nomination in March is expecting to face Democrat U.S. Sen. DICK DURBIN, of Springfield, who is seeking another six-year term. From July through September, Durbin raised more than $1 million and ended the period with $3.8 million in his campaign fund.
Curran is supposed to be the frontrunner. That’s what he told us anyway.
Two months before a 66-year-old man went on a deadly shooting spree at a condo building in Dunning, police responded to the same complex when the accused gunman allegedly assaulted the son of one of the victims of Saturday’s rampage.
The suspect, identified as Krysztof Marek, was charged Monday with five counts of first-degree murder, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office. He was denied bail during his initial court hearing.
Sergio Macias, who manages the building in the 6700 block of West Irving Park, said Marek allegedly punched Jolanta Topolska’s son in the face on Aug. 3. Macias noted that police were then summoned to the building. […]
Even before the incident in August, Marek’s strange behavior had unnerved some of his neighbors.
What can we do about a man who, according to a woman who lived nearby, was “always very friendly” until about six months ago “when he snapped”? A man who allegedly punched the son of one of the victims two and a half months ago, on Aug. 3?
Until recently, very little.
But Illinois now has a new “red flag” law, enacted in 2018, that gives neighbors and others a potentially effective tool. They can report the behavior to local police, who can check with state police to see if the person has a gun card. Then, based on further investigation, the police can petition to temporarily remove firearms from the home as long as that person is a danger to himself or herself — or to others. Family members also can petition to have guns temporarily removed.
Also under the new law, people who feel they have been unfairly targeted by others — and are really of no danger to themselves or anybody — can make their case to a judge that their firearms should not be taken from them.
Such an intervention, conceivably, could have prevented the shootings on Saturday.
Unfortunately, however, most people, including many police officers, are unaware of the new law. Illinois should amp up efforts to get the word out.
Attorney General Kwame Raoul is leading a statewide effort to do just that. Other agencies — local police departments, counseling organizations and others — should help.
* Buried near the very bottom of this Tribune story about the federal raid of the Lyons village hall is this little nugget…
The grand jury case number listed on the documents indicates the investigation began in early 2017.
…Adding… This could have been just a regular grand jury which began convening in 2017 and agreed to approve search warrants issued this year. It’s not clear what’s actually going on.
A Worth Township official who once served briefly as a state legislator and now moonlights as a sales consultant for a politically connected red-light camera contractor has been subpoenaed by federal authorities investigating the company’s activities.
John M. O’Sullivan, 51, of Oak Lawn, is Worth Township supervisor and previously served as the township’s Democratic committeeman.
O’Sullivan was chosen by Democratic party leaders in August 2010 to finish out the last four months of state Rep. Kevin Joyce’s unexpired term after Joyce resigned and moved to Florida. Sources said O’Sullivan is a close ally of the Joyce family, longtime political powerhouses in the 19th Ward.
At SafeSpeed, LLC, O’Sullivan’s job is finding municipalities that might want to hire the Chicago company to install and operate red light cameras in their communities – with the business and the towns splitting the revenues from tickets.
O’Sullivan went from being a driver and weekend disc jockey to state representative, township supervisor and Democratic committeeman, Cook County Forest Preserve District supervisor, and chief of staff to former Cook County Board member Ed Moody, now the recorder of deeds. O’Sullivan also is linked to a red-light camera company, SafeSpeed, that the feds are said to be eyeing.
O’Sullivan and Moody, along with Moody’s brother, Fred, have been the torque of Madigan’s political organization for decades. They were the guys standing on front stoops collecting signatures, bullying opponents, setting up political trades, electing Madigan’s House majority — putting in their time in exchange for perks down the road.
They got them. O’Sullivan replaced former state Rep. Kevin Joyce in 2010 in the Illinois House when Joyce moved to Florida. Conveniently, O’Sullivan was able to appoint himself to the seat with a weighted vote as a Democratic committeeman. This is Illinois, after all.
O’Sullivan later voted for the 2011 state income tax hike as a lame-duck representative. He then ended up, along with another short-term legislator, Michael Carberry, on Cook County’s payroll under President Toni Preckwinkle. […]
O’Sullivan has been around the block. He knows a lot. I’m guessing at this point, so do the feds. And now he’s been subpoenaed.
O’Sullivan is definitely in tight with the Moody brothers and worked a lot of Madigan campaigns through them, I’m told, but he’s most definitely on the outs with the 19th Ward these days. And, as far as his ties to Madigan, here’s what a longtime 19th Ward guy told me this week…
I’m guessing any communication between O’Sullivan and the Speaker goes through Marty Quinn first, and then through the Moodys. “The family has a lot of buffers.”
“My video gaming license was approved (in 2012) after a 24-month intensive investigation. All my business relationships were disclosed to investigators, and the relationships in question were explicitly discussed with multiple (Illinois Gaming Board) agents and investigators. As these business relationships were ongoing, they had been disclosed and further discussed at each annual review of my licenses over the last seven years,” Heidner testified. “I have no affiliation with the mafia at all.”
“I have never been arrested or indicted for any crime whatsoever. And no proof linking me to any criminal conspiracy, whether it’s called ‘Mafia,’ or ‘Cosa Nostra’ or whatever other name you wish to give, has ever been made public.”
I am absolutely not saying that Mr. Heidner was lying, mind you. I didn’t even know who the guy was until the other day. All I’m saying is there’s a reason why I made my interns watch Godfather 1 and 2 and Goodfellas.
New Berlin, a village with 1,500 people separated from the outskirts of Springfield by 12 miles of pale blue skies and sunlit cornstalks, still has many hallmarks of a small town. It hosts the county fair, with chili cookoffs, livestock exhibitions and country music stars drawing crowds during the long days of June. Tractors occasionally join traffic on the main thoroughfare, and freight trains rumble and screech along tracks that travel the length of town. And, of course, the people in New Berlin, like much of rural Illinois, are almost entirely white.
Unlike a lot of rural towns, though, New Berlin is growing, and its schools in particular, with nearly 5 percent annual growth, are booming. Its elementary school attendance has more than doubled since 2003. The growth in the higher grades has been slower, but still some of the highest in the metro area. […]
Students are surging into New Berlin schools, though, not because of the town’s rural charm, but because of its proximity to the suburban sprawl of southwest Springfield. As developers turn farmland into new homes, they are increasingly leaving the boundaries of Springfield’s core school district – District 186 – to do so. Even homes that are within the city limits of Springfield often don’t fall within the school district, because those boundaries aren’t the same. The decade-old, half-million-dollar houses in Springfield’s Centennial Park Place neighborhood, for example, barely fall inside the New Berlin school district.
The same thing is happening on nearly every side of Springfield; city residents, in fact, now go to seven school districts other than District 186. In the Chatham school district, more than a third of students have Springfield addresses.
We hope the mayor appreciates that by striking, any workforce declares a reset: A walkout liberates Lightfoot from proposals she already has made but which her employees have rejected. As any strike continues, the mayor is free to withdraw those proposals and offer a different package.
My unsolicited advice is don’t listen to the Tribune. Nobody’s gonna break the CTU and nobody wants a long walkout. The Tribune formula requires both.
Also, teachers aren’t the mayor’s employees. They work for the public school system.
Veteran statehouse journalist Charles Wheeler III read aloud an account Wednesday evening of state officials being concerned about Illinois underfunding its pension obligations.
That concern is a commonly voiced today in Springfield, but many in Wheeler’s audience at Eastern Illinois University were audibly surprised to learn that the account he read was from 1917.
“It’s not something new. It’s been a problem forever,” Wheeler said. […]
The guest speaker indicated that pensions were a major topic of discussion at the constitutional convention in 1970 that resulted in a new Illinois Constitution. […]
“[The delegates to the convention] knew what they were doing. The voters knew what they were doing, it was clearly explained,” Wheeler said of the pension protection clause. He added that this clause has since maintained that, “Benefits that are earned cannot be taken away.”
…Adding… Wow…
A 1916 committee was put together to study the public safety funds. one member noted that there were too many small funds writing that, "the insecurity of such small funds is so obvious as to require no comment“ https://t.co/hEdb2sl5oP
