* Gov. Pat Quinn was asked today by my intern Barton Lorimor when he was planning to hire a campaign manager. The guv said “the campaign stuff will come after we finish the governing,” adding that “we did OK in the primary.” Watch it…
That’s music to Bill Brady’s ears.
* And when will the session end so Quinn can get back onto the campaign trail? The schedule says May 7th, but the guv says it may take longer, although he could also deal with the earlier adjournment…
* The governor was also asked about AT&T’s deregulation proposal and protecting consumers. Here’s his response…
Members of the Illinois National Guard who fought alongside Polish forces in Iraq and Afghanistan gathered with Gov. Pat Quinn at Chicago’s Polish Consulate this morning to pay their respects to the eastern European country still reeling from a weekend plane crash that killed the president and some of the nation’s highest military and civilian leaders.
“It has been rough,” said Lt. Colonel Matthew Voyles of the Illinois National Guard, who served with one of the generals who died in Saturday’s crash. (Separately, Mayor Richard Daley expressed his condolences to the family of Polish President Lech Kaczynski.) […]
“Our hearts are heavy,” said Quinn, who said that he had visited Poland twice. “The people of Poland know firsthand how precious democracy and freedom and liberty are. They have struggled under oppression for many centuries, resisted the fascism of the Nazis. They resisted the Communists. They resisted all of those who would take away the right of the people to speak.”
* I’ve struggled to come up with a way to deal with this here. Illinois has so many Polish immigrants and they’ve been such an important part of our history that this unspeakable event demands something be done. But what? Maybe that should be the question: What should Illinois’ response be?
Illinois higher education officials next week likely will stop approving applicants for the state’s largest need-based college scholarship program.
The state awards money from the Monetary Award Program to students on a first-come, first-served basis until the amount of money they think they’ll have available runs out.
It could run out as early as next week, said Illinois Student Assistance Commission Executive Director Andrew Davis.
University of Illinois Extension offices are on the move.
As part of a cost-cutting measure, 76 county offices will be reduced to 30 by April 2011. The Extension’s current budget of $65 million was reduced by $5.5 million for 2011.
Extension offices have until May 10 to submit proposed multicounty partnership plans, said Roger Larson, director of the Peoria County Extension office.
Troopers on two wheels could become a thing of the past if lawmakers approve Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget proposal for the Illinois State Police.
Along with laying off 460 troopers and closing several Illinois State Police regional headquarters, Quinn’s budget plan would idle the state’s fleet of Harley-Davidson Police Electra Glides.
Those motorcycles are extremely cool. Yes, budget problems are budget problems, but I, for one, would be sad to see them go.
* Let’s turn to economic development, or the lack thereof.
I did some research on plasma arc technology years ago and found it to be pretty darned incredible. Why the NASA-developed process is really being stalled is anybody’s guess…
A group of south suburban mayors will head to Springfield on Wednesday in hopes of resurrecting a plan that would bring a new type of municipal waste-to-energy plant to the south suburbs.
Blue Island Mayor Donald Peloquin, Alsip Mayor Patrick Kitching and state Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) will be among those who will attempt to change the minds of state Rep. Robert Rita (D-Blue Island) and other opponents of a proposal to build a plasma arc gasification plant in Blue Island.
A plasma arc gasification plant uses a plasma arc like a lightning bolt to vaporize solid waste at very high temperatures. There are two byproducts, a glass-like granular slag that can be used in road paving projects and a synthetic combustible gas that can be used to fuel electric turbines and generate electricity.
The bill died last month in committee, but Rep. Davis is trying to revive it. Exelon, of course, is attempting to kill off a wind power program, so that might possibly be the case here as well. More on the technology can be found here.
* Chicago Public Radio ran a very good story today about a plan to lessen the schooling requirements for African-style hair braiders…
State law says that hair braiders like Wague must have a full cosmetology license. That could cost about $10,000 and includes 1,500 hours of training. Like many hair braiders on major streets in Chicago such as Halsted or 79th, Wague doesn’t have a license. Some observers say only 10 percent do have one. Women less as bold have shuttered their businesses.
WAGUE: We don’t feel safe operating when the government is really saying to us to close. We want to respect the law but the law is not easy to follow.
She says it’s not easy to follow because it’s too cumbersome. Hair braiders say hours of cosmetology training are unnecessary because they don’t use chemicals or do anything unrelated to braiding. Wague’s shop doesn’t even have a shampoo bowl.
She’s hoping a new law gets on the books that would require only 300 hours of training in sanitation methods to receive a hair braider’s license. Current hair braiders with experience would be able to get grandfathered in. Later they’d have to get yearly continuing education.
Illinois is looking to become the 15th state to allow medical marijuana.
The measure’s chief sponsor, State Representative Lou Lang (D-Skokie), said Saturday that he is working behind the scenes to line up the needed votes, and is waiting for the right moment to call it for a vote in the Illinois House.
The bill—already passed by the state senate—would allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to chronically ill patients in lieu of narcotics like oxycontin and vicodin. Patients who receive the prescription and garner state licensing would end owning up to three plants under the proposed legislation according to WBBM.
House members are pretty timid sorts and this is an election year.
* You learned yesterday that Rod and Rob Blagojevich objected to a federal judge’s ruling that a prosecution blueprint be made public. One of the objections was that the Blagojevich brothers would be unfairly harmed in a potential jury’s eyes by the release…
It is manifestly unfair to make public only portions of sealed tape recorded conversations, which are taken out of context by the Government.
The prosecution responded today with their own brief and it includes our quote of the day…
Notwithstanding the recent airing of a national television show in which he repeatedly proclaimed his innocence, Rod Blagojevich now argues that he would be unfairly prejudiced by the publication of the actual evidence that will be heard at his trial.
Touché, federales. Touché.
* Our fundraising plea of the day award goes to Congressman Mark Kirk…
“Had Enough? Has someone laughed at you because you are from Illinois?”
Joe Ryan points out, however, that Bolingbrook Mayor Roger Claar recently held a fundraiser for Kirk at Bolingbrook’s “posh” town-owned golf course…
Claar has taken heat for both his campaign fundraising and spending. In 2000, in resigned from the Illinois tollway board after controversy over taking campaign contributions from tollway contractors.
Claar, whose tenure heading Bolingbrook dates back to the 1980s, has taken in more than $5 million in the last decade, a big sum for a suburban mayoral campaign, according to news reports.
A Chicago Tribune review of Claar’s fundraising showed that nearly half of his campaign cash comes from companies or individuals who have done business with the suburb. Those contributors received more than $300 million in such work, more than half of the money Bolingbrook taxpayers spent on contractors in the last 10 years, according to the August news report.
But in addition to questions about where the campaign money comes from, Claar has faced heat over how he spends it - on international trips to destinations like the Bahamas and China and on a Jaguar to get around town.
Glass houses, etc.
Runner-up goes to the Illinois Republican Party for its e-mail blasting Alexi Giannoulias for hypocrisy. On the one hand, Giannoulias whacks Mark Kirk for accepting corporate PAC money. But Giannoulias’ “campaign chairman” US Sen. Dick Durbin, rakes in the PAC cash. Among its list of questions for Giannoulias is this one…
Do you think your campaign chairman, Senator Dick Durbin, is owned by special interests since he has accepted corporate PAC contributions?
Despite his campaign pledge not to take corporate PAC contributions, the Giannoulias Campaign Chairman, Senator Dick Durbin, accepted more than $6.5 million in campaign contributions from federal PACs – $4.4 million from corporate PACs alone. (Source: Center for Responsive Politics)
The Giannoulias Campaign Chairman, Senator Dick Durbin, accepted $663,000 in campaign contributions from lobbyists, $1.46 million from Big Banks and Securities, and $1.45 million from the health care sector. (Source: Center for Responsive Politics)
That’s a fair question.
*** UPDATE *** Mark Kirk has reported raising $2.2 million in the first quarter of the year for his US Senate race. Alexi Giannoulias just released his own totals, which show he pulled in $1.2 million during the same quarter. From a campaign fundraising plea…
Together, without corporate special interest and federal lobbyist money, we raised $1.2 million, an outstanding amount that will allow us to get our message out.
The campaign disclosed in a follow-up call that it had $1.2 million in cash on hand. That’s way below Kirk’s $3 million or so in the bank. Giannouolias, of course, had a hotly contested primary.
“This is a competitive number and we’ve seen a surge in growth in recent weeks,” said a Giannoulias campaign spokesperson. The fundraising “surge” came after Kirk’s now infamous pledge to “lead the effort” to repeal the new healthcare bill.
* I’m not sure who did this, but somebody put together a Web video slamming Sen. Bill Brady for proposing a bill to re-legalize mass euthanasia of dogs and cats. Check it out…
* SEIU Healthcare is running a new TV ad demanding no state cuts to healthcare. Rate it…
* Eric Zorn makes an important point about polling in his column today. He notes that four years ago, much like this time around, polls showed Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich trailing his Republican opponent, Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka.
The big difference between then and now was that Blagojevich began running TV ads in mid April bashing Topinka…
Less than one month after the primary, he was on the air with a series of “What’s she thinking?” TV commercials attacking Topinka’s opposition to a hike in the minimum wage and to an assault weapons ban.
Even though Topinka was fairly well-known to voters — three-term state treasurer, suburban social moderate — the Blagojevich campaign defined her as an erratic extremist before she could define herself, thus forcing her to play defense through the summer and fall.
Those ads tanked JBT’s numbers for good. She dropped to ten points behind and never moved any closer. Another difference between then and now, Zorn rightly notes, is that Gov. Quinn doesn’t have the sort of campaign apparatus that RRB had back then. He’s also lacking Blagojevich’s giant pile of cash…
But when Quinn does finally hit the campaign trail, he’ll do so with far less money than Blagojevich had, in part because of new state ethics laws that block major state contractors from filling political coffers. Though updated campaign-finance reports aren’t yet available, we know Quinn entered the last few weeks of the primary season with a cash balance of about $3 million, compared to an estimated $14 million Blagojevich had heading into his lightly contested 2006 primary. Blagojevich ended up spending $27 million on his re-election bid.
Topinka and Blagojevich raised nearly identical amounts of money during the stretch run, roughly $4.9 million, but Blagojevich had more than $12.2 million in the bank at the end of June, compared to $1.5 million for Topinka.
Quinn likely spent every dime he had in the primary. And because he has angered the public employee unions to no end, he doesn’t have access to their cash right now when he may need it most. And then there’s this…
Furthermore, 2006 was a good year for Democrats overall — they picked up six seats in the U.S. Senate and 30 in the U.S. House, running against the party of a Republican president with sagging approval ratings. Today, every projection has 2010 being a good year for Republicans — they figure to pick up dozens of seats running against the party of a Democratic president with sagging approval ratings.
2006 was a great year for the Illinois Senate Democrats, who picked up a super majority. Speaker Madigan refused to go on offense, believing Blagojevich would be a drag on the ticket. Blagojevich’s close pal Tony Rezko was, indeed, indicted just days before the election, but Madigan was dead wrong about the environment and he picked up just one seat. That inaction could cost him the House this fall if the Republicans manage to pull off another landslide year, but I digress.
* Trying to read the tea leaves: The Tea Party, the incipient movement that claims to be committed to reining in what they perceive as big government, appears to be motivated by more than partisanship and ideology. Approximately 45% of Whites either strongly or somewhat approve of the movement. Of those, only 35% believe Blacks to be hardworking, only 45% believe Blacks are intelligent, and only 41% think that Blacks are trustworthy.
Lenders who say they are owed more than $3.6 billion by Tribune Co. are calling a purported global settlement that the media company announced last week “dead on arrival.”
Last week, Watson’s hired gun, N’Digo publisher Hermene Hartman, posted a scathing article on Huffington Post about my columns denouncing the manner in which acclaimed publisher and poet Haki Madhubuti left the university. […]
Although she picked me apart, the magazine publisher did not disclose the contract she was given by Chicago State University.
What she said was: “Dr. Wayne Watson, the president of Chicago State University, and I were vice chancellors at City Colleges together. He is my friend.”
What she should have added is: By the way, before Watson could get his bags unpacked at Chicago State, I had already landed a $19,000 contract for marketing consulting work.
Defying Mayor Daley, the City Council’s License Committee agreed today to give businesses a two-year reprieve from the costly demands of Chicago’s 1991 landscaping ordinance.
After a barrage of complaints from hairdressers, nail salons and health clubs, the City Council’s Zoning Committee on Monday watered-down the ordinance championed by Ald. Ray Suarez (31st).
There are many reasons to be doubtful of the ordinance Chicago aldermen plan to put forward today for a separate inspector general empowered for the first time to investigate the City Council.
The biggest reason may not actually be in the proposed ordinance itself, but in how it’s expected to be put into practice.
It seems the aldermen are envisioning the new inspector general as a part-time job.
The south suburbs own a dubious honor. According to the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association, our area is known for the highest rate of vacant homes in the state.[…]
The next step from a vacant home is an abandoned one. And abandoned properties quickly can become blights, attracting crime and vandalism. Ignored and unkempt, they make an entire neighborhood look bad.
Consumer confidence in the Peoria area improved a little over the last six months, but still hasn’t reached positive levels in some areas.
That’s according to the Spring 2010 Index of Consumer Sentiment produced by the Center for Business and Economic Research at Bradley University, to be released Tuesday.
* A political battle, of sorts, is starting to break out on Facebook. It’s providing us a nice preview of the upcoming assessor’s race between Joe Berrios and Forrest Claypool.
Scott Cisek, who ran Toni Preckwinkle’s campaign and is now political director of the Cook County Democratic Party under chairman Berrios (who is being challenged by independent candidate Claypool for assessor) got the ball rolling…
Cook County Democrats, remember what Benjamin Franklin once said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
A FB friend of Cisek’s then posted this…
Toni Preckwinkle winning is wonderful. Joe Berrios is all around bad for the people. Simple as that.
Cisek responded…
I remember hearing the same thing about Glenn Poshard. It seems to me breaking with the party to back George Ryan didn’t serve the Democratic voters - or the state - very well. History repeats and Franklin was right.
Claypool’s campaign manager Tom Bowen jumped into the fray…
Hey Scott, suggesting that Democrats will be disappointed by a vote for Forrest over Berrios is a little confusing to me, especially after you trotted out a comparison to George Ryan - Glenn Poshard, so how about a clarification. What issue differences are there between them that you think will be bad for Democrats? And, since you mentioned Ryan, please comment on whether you think Forrest will be more corrupt or dishonest somehow than Berrios will.
The two then got into it…
Scott Cisek: Tom, you should know me better. Do you think I am going to jump at bait from you?
Thomas C. Bowen: You’re voting for him man, if you can’t explain it in public, I’m not sure how much confidence you’re going to inspire.
Scott Cisek: I am sure you are aware there will be a lively debate in public. My Facebook wall hardly qualifies as “public”.
It qualifies now, Scott.
* In other social media politics, the Quinn campaign has started a “Pets for Pat” FB page…
Calling all political hounds here! This is the place to share stories and pictures with pets so we can rally for Pat Quinn and other candidates who share our love for our pets and animal welfare.
Paws Up for Pat Quinn!
The page was apparently started after reports surfaced that Quinn’s GOP opponent had sponsored a bill to re-legalize the mass euthanasia of dogs and cats.
* Congressman Mark Kirk recently posted a FB video of an MSNBC report slamming Alexi Giannoulias. And Giannouolias posted a FB video of Sen. Dick Durbin whacking Mark Kirk.
* The Illinois Senate Democrats’ new Facebook page shows they have over 600 friends, but they’re not getting much of a response yet. For instance, nobody responded to this recent post…
Any thoughts on Pres Cullerton’s response to the Trib’s editorial accusing us of a “delay and deny” strategy?
* Republican treasurer candidate state Sen. Dan Rutherford reveals that he has a nickname for his car…
early morning jog & now on road with Pongee (my Pontiac G6) & Josh the Road Warrior. Late arrival in Spfld for Senate Session Tuesday after Canton meet & greet, Macomb lunch with Rep. Rich Myers, then Quincy meet & greet and media.
* Last week, a federal judge said he was inclined to make public the prosecution’s “proffer” - essentially a blueprint to the prosecution’s case - for the combined Rod and brother Rob Blagojevich trials. The judge said he would allow the defendants to object to specific aspects of the proffer, and brother Rob’s attorney filed a motion today…
The government should release the entirety of certain FBI witness statements and tape recorded conversations to the public rather than selectively publicizing sections, defense lawyers for Rob Blagojevich said today.
A new filing in the case of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his brother, Rob, argues that the government at times is “deceptively misleading” in a now-sealed proffer that a judge ruled will become public on Wednesday.
Their complaints come as they request that certain sections of the proffer are not made public before the June 3 trial.
“Our position is that it is manifestly unfair to make public only portions of sealed tape recorded conversations, which are taken out of context by the Government. To be fair to the defendant, we urge this Honorable Court to keep everything sealed or, in the alternative, unseal everything,” Rob Blagojevich attorney Michael Ettinger wrote in the court filing. “We submit that this proffer will be summarized and quoted by the media again and again every week leading up to the trial. Parts will be quoted on television, in print, on radio and on the Internet.”
We strenuously object to footnote 24 regarding a conversation between (redacted) and Rod Blagojevich wherein, once again, the Government has omitted significant parts of a taped conversation, which deceptively misleads anyone who reads the footnote to believe that there was an agreement for a quid pro quo.
The actual recorded conversation shows just the opposite. We move to strike this footnote in its entirety or, if this Court sees fit to unseal it, replace the footnote with a transcript of the recorded conversation to allow the public to see the true facts.
(On Elvis Presley’s) great 1968 comeback special, which was on NBC, he wore all his black leather and he sang “If I Can Dream” at the end of that show. That was his big comeback. Incidentally, NBC was the host of “Celebrity Apprentice.” Also the host of “I’m A Celebrity… Get Mm Out of Here!” I feel like there’s a connection. Patti and I have done business there on TV. Elvis had his comeback concert. I kinda consider that there’s almost a divine kinda connection maybe. I can hope that that’s the case anyway. [Rod Blagojevich, Sunday on his WLS AM 890 radio show.]
Full disclosure. I bought Blagojevich the DVD of that Elvis special. Sorry about that.
* This first graphic is a map of how states fare on their tax dollars. Those in red receive more than a dollar back for every tax dollar they send the federal government. Those in blue (including Illinois) receive less than a dollar…
And this is the electoral map from the 2008 presidential election…
* House Speaker Michael Madigan has a new proposal on the foreclosure crisis…
Under the legislative proposal, a copy of which was obtained by the Tribune, a $1,000 mortgage prevention fee would be collected during the sheriff’s sale process from the purchasers of residential buildings with four or fewer units. The fees would go into a mortgage foreclosure prevention fund and would be distributed to organizations assisting delinquent borrowers, court-sponsored mediation programs and for legal services and temporary loans to homeowners.
The proposal would most directly affect lenders, which at sheriff’s sales most often buy back properties they have foreclosed upon. In February, 6,454 properties in Illinois received notices that a sheriff’s sale was scheduled, according to RealtyTrac.
* The Question: Do you agree with this idea? Explain.
* As I’ve told you before, the Alexi Giannoulias US Senate campaign has been focus-grouping the problems at his family’s bank and believes the media is out of touch with the citizenry…
The effort to reshape the campaign has started with a push to explore ways that Mr. Giannoulias might burnish his image if Broadway Bank collapses. In mid-March, the campaign conducted 12 hours of focus groups — six groups of swing voters, over three days, at sites both in suburban Chicago and downstate — testing the impact of the bank’s troubles on voters’ views of the candidate.
In an edited video clip of the focus groups that was shown to the Chicago News Cooperative, a moderator asked participants about their impressions of Broadway Bank as it related to Mr. Giannoulias. The strong majority of the people who saw the video played down the relevance of the issue.
“This is where I think there is a little bit of a disconnect between all the geniuses and the voters,” Mr. Adelstein said.
As part of the planning for the focus groups, Mr. Adelstein made a test campaign commercial in which Mr. Giannoulias stares into the camera lens and tries to relate the plight of his family’s bank to the larger context of the country’s economic struggles.
While the campaign has decided not to take to the air with that kind of ad yet, “the key take-away from that is we are ready, we have our plan,” Ms. Strand said.
* But the Kirk campaign is not giving up. Not by a long shot. Their opposition research turned up a tax lien that they leaked to Crain’s…
At issue is a $10,204.49 Internal Revenue Service tax lien filed against Broadway for alleged underpayment of money owed, plus interest and penalties. A copy of the lien, which was filed with the Cook County Recorder of Deeds office last September, was provided to me by a political opponent of Mr. Giannoulias.
According to the bank, the taxes do not involve normal bank operations — like Social Security taxes on Broadway or its employees — but deal with an apparently small number of customer accounts from which the bank is supposed to withhold 28% of due interest.
The accounts could lack or have incorrect personal identification numbers, or involve taxpayers who previously had problems with IRS. Whatever the case, the IRS says the bank didn’t pay enough.
“We properly paid the backup withholding taxes back in 2003 and filed a tax return with the IRS,” Broadway Chief Financial Officer Kaushik Pancholi said in a statement. “We have been communicating with them about a technical issue concerning whether a small amount of interest was correctly calculated by the government.”
* And the Illinois GOP issued a statement today claiming the Giannoulias focus groups were nefarious…
Giannoulias recently conducted several focus groups to find the perfect misleading message to successfully deceive the voters.
* Giannoulias is preparing to fight back today during a Chicago luncheon address.
Thoughts?
*** UPDATE 1 *** Commenter “Chicago Cynic” is at the Giannoulias event and providing some highlights in comments.
*** UPDATE 2 *** The Giannouolias campaign released some of his prepared remarks. An excerpt…
As people get introduced to Congressman Kirk and his policies over the next seven months, they’ll find out what he really stands for, which really is nothing at all. And he certainly hasn’t stood for the people of this great state during this critical time in our nation’s history. Illinois voters will learn that after six straight months of job losses, he voted against extending unemployment benefits, saying that unemployment is not “a big issue.” He’s repeatedly voted for tax breaks for the richest one percent and for companies that ship American jobs overseas. He’s cheered for every single one of George W. Bush’s irresponsible, failed budgets that doubled our national debt. Doubled it. This during a time of great economic growth. And despite the carnage we see around us because of those negligent budgets, record unemployment, and an outrageously shrinking middle class - he refuses to change his views or admit his failures. In fact, even during a recession, he voted against one of the biggest middle-class tax cuts in history.
***
But I won’t let Congressman Kirk get away from the issues. I’m not going to let this campaign be overshadowed by his negative attacks and lies. Not when the people of Illinois desperately need solutions. Real families are dealing with real problems. It’s time to elevate this debate.
***
And the day I announced my US Senate campaign, I became the first senate candidate in Illinois history to refuse money from federal lobbyists and corporate PACs. I made that pledge because I believe that Corporations have far too much influence on the policy-making process. Just take a look at Congressman Kirk’s donors and his votes, and the connection is clear. And today I renew my call for Congressman Kirk to match my standard and reject all corporate cash.
Giannoulias waved off any suggestion that the bank controversy may lead to him pulling out as the party’s nominee.
“That will never happen. We’re going to win this race,” Giannoulias said. “We’re out there talking about creating jobs. We’re out there talking about rescuing a plant in peril … helping small businesses … pre-existing conditions, when the congressman is against all these issues.”
Kirk held a news conference last week touting his support for stem cell research. Giannoulias warned voters not to accept Kirk’s description of himself as a “moderate.”
Giannoulias said Kirk’s positions “change based on the political winds.”
“This image out there that Congressman Kirk is a moderate is just an absolute farce,” Giannoulias. “Behind closed doors he says, ‘Barack Obama is a one-termer’ and ‘As your next senator I would repeal Health Care,’ and when you ask him about it, he backs off and says he’s not sure where he stands. He says Sarah Palin wouldn’t be a vice-presidential choice he would choose and yet behind closed doors he begs for her support.”
To settle the differences, Quinn has lobbied members of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus, a consortium of 272 Chicago-area mayors, to back his 1 percent income tax surcharge by offering them a portion of the $3.1 billion it’s expected to raise to offset what they’d lose in income tax proceeds, said David Bennett, executive director of the caucus.
Quinn spokesman Bob Reed would not confirm the governor offered such a trade-off.
That’s why [GOP state Sen. John Millner] personally feels protecting special education funding for children is a much higher priority than providing free public transportation for seniors without first considering their income levels.
The costs for those free rides is mostly borne by the locals
* Cook County’s big, fat tax lie: Trouble is, [Houlihan] sent out notices to homeowners emphasizing the lower assessment percentages without warning homeowners that they would see a jump in market value. So tax bills actually are going up, despite assessment notices showing a drop. And by the time homeowners figure it out, they may miss deadlines to appeal their assessments.
* We’ve read a lot lately, particularly from the Chicago Tribune editorial board, about how Illinois hasn’t met its pension obligations. But we’re not alone…
New Jersey’s governor, a fiscal conservative, has proposed not making the state’s entire $3 billion contribution to its pension funds because of the state’s $11 billion budget deficit. Virginia has proposed paying only $1.5 billion of the $2.2 billion required pension contribution. Connecticut Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell is deferring $100 million in payments this year to the pension fund for state employees to help close a $518 million budget gap […]
“Of 71 pension plans that submitted 2009 contribution figures so far, the Center for Retirement Research found that more than 50%, or 39, reported not paying their full pension bill.
And another study shows it could be years before the problems get any better…
“The numbers are not going to look good for the next five years,” said Alicia Munnell, the director of retirement research at Boston College, who compiled the study. “But a continuing deterioration in the funding numbers should not be headline news going forward.”
Nor is there any apparent magic bullet to solve the pension funding problems.
“States and localities have little in the way of public options to fix the problems quickly,” Munnell said. “Really what we need to do is wait — wait for the economy and the stock market to recover.”
Illinois has the most underfunded state pension systems in the country, but it’s important to remember that we’re not totally alone here. This is a national trend.
Among the 21 percent whose governments have changed their retirement plans, 73 percent say the changes have not affected current workers and 60 percent say the changes have not affected new hires.
The [existing] Illinois teachers pension plan is mainly employee-funded in the first place. The state pays just 4.6 percent of a new teacher’s salary today toward a pension; the teacher pays 9.4 percent. The state’s cost is about 25 percent less than the 6.2 percent private employers pay for Social Security alone, already making it one of the lowest cost plans for taxpayers in the country. And Illinois teachers are not part of the Social Security system and therefore receive no Social Security benefit when they retire. Their pension is all they have to live on. […]
.
Teachers gave up the option to be part of Social Security years ago because they believed in the fairness of the existing pension plan, which was jointly funded by teachers and the state. Illinois taxpayers save more than $700 million per year by not paying Social Security payroll taxes for 78 percent of all active employees in the five state-managed plans, including all public school teachers. Unfortunately, the state routinely skipped its payments, causing today’s mountain of pension debt. Teachers never missed a contribution.
Preckwinkle wrote that the union is now looking at putting newly hired teachers under the Social Security umbrella…
So now we will look again at the Social Security option for new teachers. Under state and federal law, they still have the right to be covered. And yes, it will cost hundreds of millions of new taxpayer-funded dollars should they choose coverage. Sorry, General Assembly, but even you can’t skip out on Social Security taxes once your employees are part of the system.
That’s a pretty big hammer, should they decide to use it. At least one freshman Democrat hopes to undo part of the changes…
d Democratic Rep. Farnham believes the pension changes were rushed and hopes to follow up with legislation allowing teachers to retire earlier than age 67 with full pension benefits.
At an Elgin Area School District U-46 “Principal for a Day” event April 1, Farnham said he felt negotiations between legislators and local unions had made significant progress over recent months.
“I hope the conversation isn’t over,” he said. Farnham said he’d spoken to Illinois Education Association leaders about efforts to cancel parts of the proposal.
Don’t hold your breath…
“If anything, there are discussions about bringing similar reforms to other budgets,” Brown said, referring to police and fire pensions which were not affected by last month’s changes. “I think the idea would be to embrace all of the (pension) funds.”
* Semi-related…
* Is it unions that prevent bad teachers from getting fired?: In Georgia, where 92.5% of the teachers are non-union, only 0.5% of tenured/post-probationary teachers get fired. In South Carolina, where 100% of the teachers are non-union, it’s 0.32%. And in North Carolina, where 97.7% are non-union, a miniscule .03% of tenured/post-probationary teachers get fired—the exact same percentage as California.
It seems like everywhere you look these days, the Illinois Democrats are getting hammered.
Most of the Democratic carnage is self-inflicted, like the Scott Lee Cohen debacle, or the brutal gubernatorial primary, or the troubles at U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias’ family bank, or the decision to run a lobbyist with close connections to House Speaker Michael Madigan for Cook County Assessor.
But some of the media coverage is going far over the top lately, and a few people in Chicago really need to take a breath already.
The media went off their collective rocker in the closing years of George Ryan’s term, and the Republican Party paid a steep price for a very long time. I wrote quite a few stories about media overreach back then, and I think it’s past time for another one. Let’s look at just a few examples, shall we?
* On behalf of a law firm client, Senate President John Cullerton persuades Cook County to open up a decades-old no-bid traffic school contract to competitive bidding. Millions of dollars are saved and Cullerton’s client loses the open bidding process, but the Sun-Times whacks Cullerton for engaging in a “clout fight” because the other side had a lobbyist with ties to the Daley family. This story really crystalizes how truly strange things have become with the Chicago media. Money is saved, the people are better served, an old contract is finally opened up to competition and it’s somehow a bad thing. Bizarre.
* Giannoulias’ family bank is allegedly ripped off by a widely respected business owner (Boston Blackies, Carson’s Ribs) who also contributed to Giannoulias’ state treasurer’s campaign. The bank is obviously a victim here, but Giannoulias is repeatedly hammered because the reporters and editors engaging in a wild feeding frenzy apparently don’t stop to think about what they’re really doing. Overboard.
* The disgraced, notoriously unstable former governor Rod Blagojevich says on a Chicago radio show that he suspects the White House wants to push Giannoulias off the ticket and the city’s punditocracy picks it up and repeats it as gospel, without, of course, attributing the theory to the discredited, unreliable Blagojevich or identifying a single source - even an anonymous source - at the White House who will confirm it. And now it seems that some are trying to will the crackpot Blagojevich’s theory into existence. Crazy.
* The Tribune editorial board slams Democrats in the General Assembly on the front page of the Sunday paper for not balancing the budget, which the board says shouldn’t be so difficult. The edit board puts forth its own budget-cutting plan, which consists of cutting half the deficit and then claiming those reductions will magically solve the whole problem in two years. Um, $13 billion minus $6.5 billion does not equal zero, Tribune. Not to mention that many of the Tribune’s cuts aren’t really spelled out. Stupid.
* The Tribune editorial page and Crain’s Chicago Business loudly tout a recent study that claims Illinois “would collect an additional $2.1 billion in annual tax revenue” if it had as many jobs as it did a decade ago. Well, sure, but if the sky was green then grass might be blue. Anybody notice China over there? Or Mexico? Or the two recessions in the last decade, including this really big one we’re in now? Sure there’s a lot of work to be done here, but how much cash would the sainted Indiana have if it had all the jobs it lost in the last 10 years? Even more ludicrous is the stated claim that the $2.1 billion the state would get from those lost jobs would be “enough to fill roughly half of (the state’s) fiscal 2011 budget hole.” Half of $13 billion is not $2.1 billion. Not even “roughly.” Nuts.
The problems in this state are wide and deep. No question about it. The Democrats deserve the blame for many of the problems because they’ve been running the show (although you can hardly blame them for the national economic collapse). But this very disturbing media trend of making stuff up or creating controversy out of thin air really needs to end. It’s wholly irresponsible and is yellow journalism of the worst kind.
There’s more than enough material to jab the Illinois Democrats without all this insane goofiness.
* Speaking of which, the Sun-Times has an article today about how a winner of a competitively bid contract also makes campaign contributions. NBC5’s blog has a piece about how Toni Preckwinkle is a “backsliding independent” because her campaign manager left to run the Cook County Democratic Party’s political organization. Chuck Sweeny wrote a column claiming that liberal Democrats are “the only kind now” in Illinois, even though quite a few Dems are on the conservative side. And a Tribune editorial claimed that the Democratic majority in the Senate passing a Democratic redistricting plan is “an apt illustration of what’s wrong with the Democrats’ redistricting proposal.” Senate President John Cullerton, by the way, published a stinging response to a recent Trib editorial.
* In the past, Fox Chicago hasn’t posted its Sunday program until later in the week. But they posted this week’s program a day early, so let’s have a look.
First up, state Sen. Bill Brady, who talks about the latest polls, Jim Edgar’s comments about his ideas, and the budget…
Sen. Kwame Raoul defends his new legislative redistricting program against criticism…
Forrest Claypool talks about the assessor’s race, the health care company he started and his tenure as Mayor Daley’s chief of staff. He wasn’t asked about House Speaker Michael Madigan’s ties to Joe Berrios, however…
* Malcom McLaren wasn’t one of my favorite people growing up. Yeah, without his management there would be no Sex Pistols. But McLaren took far too much credit for the Pistols’ success and treated its members like a second-rate boy band, which led directly to their split.
“For me Malc was always entertaining, and I hope you remember that. Above all else he was an entertainer and I will miss him, and so should you.”
My brother Denny and I played in a band in high school that did “God Save the Queen.” It was one of the few Pistols tunes we could get away with playing at school functions and on base (we were in Germany at the time, living on a military base). After I moved to Munich for college, I was at a buddy’s apartment when somebody from back home who was visiting my friend said he had a tape of one of our gigs. I am bummed to this day that I didn’t get a copy of that tape. We were pretty good. At least, we thought so at the time.
* 1:00 pm - As I told subscribers weeks ago, Rep. Julie Hamos has been picked to direct DHFS…
Gov. Pat Quinn today named an unsuccessful Democratic congressional candidate to lead the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.
State Rep. Julie Hamos of Wilmette, succeeds Barry Maram, who resigned this month after seven years in the post. Maram, a holdover from ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration, will help in the transition. […]
Hamos pledged to make Illinois a nationwide health care leader by bringing people from around the state to the table to listen to how to best implement national health care reforms locally.
“We need to really hear the disparate voices,” Hamos said at a luncheon with Quinn to announce her appointment at the East Bank Club.
DHFS is almost without a doubt the most complicated state agency in Illinois. This will be a huge challenge for Hamos.
Robyn Gabel will reportedly be appointed to the Hamos seat soon. Gabel won the Democratic primary to replace Hamos in February. She’s a longtime Statehouse hand who I think will be a solid legislator.
* The old saying that anecdotes aren’t data may apply to this Tribune story. Here’s the anecdote…
After his prison sentence came to an end in April 2007, child sex predator Ronald Dubbins was supposed to undergo one year of tightly controlled supervision as he transitioned back home — with electronic monitoring, mandatory therapy and frequent meetings with a parole officer.
But because he could not find a place to live that met Illinois’ ever-expanding sex offender housing restrictions, Dubbins served parole behind bars and then was released into Cook County without monitoring.
Dubbins returned to his old ways after his release.
But here’s the data…
Of the 1,292 sex offenders discharged in fiscal 2008 after serving parole behind bars, 28 percent were listed as missing, not having registered their address or not being up-to-date with their registrations, compared with 23 percent of the 1,868 sex offenders paroled into the community.
Another 21 percent of the discharged offenders returned to prison, a slightly higher rate than those who were paroled. But in most cases, offenders monitored in the community were sent back to prison for technical parole violations, in many cases housing-related problems, while the discharged offenders were convicted of new crimes.
That’s not a huge difference, but I do see the point. Releasing them from parole served behind bars straight into the community needs to be rethought, for sure. Also, this Dubbins character had his parole shortened due to good time credit. That needs to end or be rethought. Since Dubbins wasn’t required to undergo counseling, who’s to say he wasn’t a threat because he didn’t get into any trouble in prison?
Definitely time for some statute tweaks, but overreactions should be reined in.
* I’ve become more of an agnostic on concealed carry laws. I, for one, thought that Florida’s concealed carry law, which allows people to pack heat in taverns, would be a disaster. Florida has some pretty wild spots, so I figured we’d see some old-time gun battles. That didn’t happen, however, and now I’m far more open-minded about the idea. But this sort of rhetoric is a bit much…
[Valinda Rowe of IllinoisCarry.com] drew laughs in making her point about how women should be able to carry a gun for self-defense, describing advice given on the Illinois State Police Web site for handling an assault. It advises scratching an attacker with car keys or a rat-tail hair comb, or making yourself vomit to repel them (she handed out tongue depressors with the Illinoiscarry.com label, calling them a “tactical self-defense weapon.”)
“If these are so effective, why do we not see them in the Illinois State Police’ holsters?” she said, holding up a comb and keys.
I’ve noticed a strong sense among the most fervent concealed carry types that they could battle it out with the gun-toting bad guys. Some even appear to want the chance to do so. But the bad guys just don’t throw down from a distance and challenge you. An unspecting gun or club to your head or a knife to your back doesn’t give you much time to react.
That being said, I can definitely see the deterrent factor from criminals knowing that their victims might be armed. Still, Miami’s violent crime rate is significantly higher than Chicago’s. So, maybe that’s a fallacy as well.
* Meanwhile, Exelon appears to be fighting hard in Springfield to stop some wind power projects. Progress Illinois fills us in…
Last month, we noted how Chairman Mike Jacobs (D-Moline) shelved key “green” legislation on the eve of a critical legislative deadline while unexpectedly giving a pass to some legislation benefiting the energy industry. At the time, State Sen. Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) — whose wind-related bill remained stalled — attributed the incident to a “miscommunication.”
Now Crain’s is reporting (subscription required) that energy industry lobbyists were indeed engaged in a behind-the-scenes effort to thwart Harmon’s measure (SB 3686), objecting to one provision which would require that utilities fulfilling their obligations under the state’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard procure renewable energy from Illinois sources before turning to neighboring states.
Wind advocates have launched a counter-campaign, arguing that the bill is key to launching some shovel-ready Illinois wind farms over the next year. “[I]f Exelon is successful,” Illinois Wind Energy Association’s Kevin Borgia wrote yesterday, “the Illinois projects remain in limbo, and the new jobs, tax revenue, and other economic development likely go to Texas, the Dakotas, and even Manitoba.”
The Operating Engineers union has 400 members working on wind projects in Illinois, with the prospect for many more, so they’re gearing up for a big fight against Exelon.
Crain’s explains that Exelon is battling the jobs, property taxes and economic development the wind farms bring over a fear for its profits…
But a continued influx of homegrown wind power could hit Exelon where it hurts the most, reducing wholesale power prices in Illinois. That’s because wind tends to blow hardest at night, when power demand is lowest. In recent years, real-time prices at night have turned negative at times, requiring generators to actually pay to unload their juice, because supply has outstripped demand. More local wind power likely would exacerbate that effect. Exelon’s nukes run around the clock, making them more vulnerable to these price swings, while natural gas- and coal-fired plants can shut down when demand is weak […]
Joseph Dominguez, Exelon’s senior vice-president for state governmental affairs, acknowledges more wind power in the market could hurt prices the nuclear plants could charge, but he said it could hurt higher-cost coal-fired plants more.
Change is tough, but it needs to happen. And Exelon’s pricing concerns are balderdash. The estimate is that these projects would cost households 40 cents a month. That ain’t much considering past ComEd rate hikes.
Part of the problem here is the way this bill is being lobbied. Sen. Jacobs’ father, former state Sen. Denny Jacobs, lobbies for ComEd. These two guys really need to be careful about this stuff, particularly with the feds nosing around the building.
A Buffalo Grove atheist claims that $2.3 billion worth of construction grants are unconstitutionally going toward religious organizations.
That lede is just flat-out false. [ADDING: I didn’t notice that the story was written a couple of weeks ago, but the premise remains. The topline claim by Sherman is unsupported by the facts.] Here’s most of the reason why…
The suit names Gov. Pat Quinn as a defendant, saying the governor was allowed unconstitutional authority to spend a grant worth $2.23 billion as he sees fit. The grant is the largest one listed in the suit.
So, almost all of the spending challenged by the suit has nothing whatsoever to do with religious organizations.
* But, wait, there’s more. Reporters aren’t drilling down even a little bit into this sut. For instance, the first grant on Sherman’s list is $45 million for “early childhood construction grants to school districts and not-for-profit providers of early childhood services.” The reason this grant was challenged? “Grant not limited to the secular programs.”
Sherman doesn’t show any examples of how the state Constitution’s separation of church and state provision is actually being violated. He just thinks it might be violated one day.
The sum of $5,000,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated from the Capital Development Fund to the Department of Natural Resources for upgrades to lodges, camps and campsites, including but not limited to previously incurred costs.
That, too, was challenged because it doesn’t specify that no money goes to religious groups for non-sectarian purposes.
There’s more. Including a $100,000 construction grant for the Boys & Girls Club of Mississippi Valley for a teen center.
My conclusion is Sherman and Green Party gubernatorial candidate Rich Whitney (Sherman’s attorney) bulked up this lawsuit for maximum media impact. And the media mostly fell for it.
A group seeking to keep religion out of government is singling out the Illinois House for starting each session day with a prayer.
The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to House Speaker Michael Madigan, a Chicago Democrat, asking that the prayers be stopped after the organization received a complaint from one of its Illinois members. The group claims the prayers violate the U.S. Constitution because they alienate non-Christians and nonbelievers.
“Do it yourself is our philosophy,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, the foundation’s co-president. “Don’t beseech some supernatural being in the sky to do your work for you.”
* No surprise here. Embattled Democratic US Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias is losing ground in the Rasmussen Reports poll. But Republican Mark Kirk is not gaining anything. Instead, voters appear to moving to undecided and “some other candidate.” That combined number has risen from 14 percent in February to 21 percent in the new poll. Here are the latest results, with two previous Rasmussen polls from March and February in parentheses…
Mark Kirk 41% (41%, 46%)
Alexi Giannoulias 37% (44%, 40%)
Some Other Candidate 8% (5%, 4%)
Not sure 13% (10%, 10%)
Kirk holds a double-digit lead over his Democratic rival among male voters, but Giannoulias has a slight edge among women. Voters not affiliated with either party prefer the Republican by a four-to-one margin.
Giannoulias is now viewed very favorably by just eight percent (8%) of Illinois voters and very unfavorably by 21%. This marks little change from last month.
Seventeen percent (17%) have a very favorable opinion of Kirk, while the identical number (17%) view him very unfavorably. Both findings are up from a month ago.
At this point in a campaign, Rasmussen Reports considers the number of people with strong opinions more significant than the total favorable/unfavorable numbers.
* Rasmussen actually has a slight majority for repeal of the new health care bill, with 51 percent favoring and 44 percent opposed. However, a plurality of 48 percent thinks the legislation will be “good for the country,” while 44 percent think it’ll be bad. 52 percent say they support requiring everyone to buy or obtain health insurance.
When you think about the major issues facing the country, whose views are closest to your own President Barack Obama or the average tea party member?
50% President Barack Obama
38% The average Tea Party member
12% Not sure
How concerned are you that those opposed to President Obama’s policies will resort to violence?
27% Very concerned
29% Somewhat concerned
21% Not very concerned
20% Not at all concerned
3% Not sure
56 percent are concerned about violence? Fascinating.
…Adding… The more Republican you are, the less concerned about a violent reaction to Obama’s policies you may be, according to the crosstabs.
61 percent of Republicans were “Not very concerned” (33) or “Not at all concerned” (28) about the prospect of violence. Just 22 percent of Democrats weren’t concerned, while 65 percent of Dems were “Very concerned” (37) or “Somewhat concerned” (38) about violent reacts. 36 percent of Repubs were concerned.
* Related…
* ADDING: Preckwinkle’s campaign manager takes post with Cook Dems
* ADDING: Giannoulias Campaign Not Letting Kirk Off The Hook
* About 100 air frustrations with health care at Walsh forum: Walsh also has opposed the health care law and on Thursday repeated his promise to repeal the law if elected to the House. “It can be repealed,” he said. “It can be defunded.”
* No winners in America where citizens can’t talk to one another: Ultimately what’s troublesome here is the tone. One can certainly disagree with Hare on this or any issue; he’s a big boy who ought to be able to handle the heat. That said, we’ve known Hare for a few years now, he’s an amiable and well-intentioned sort, and he didn’t have this treatment coming. It’s quite a stretch to suggest this military veteran “doesn’t care” about the Constitution. Given his vote, nothing he could have said would have satisfied this crowd, which has every right to - and almost certainly will - express its displeasure with him at the ballot box. When Americans can’t talk to one another anymore, then it’s difficult to have a functioning democracy. Who would be surprised if Hare were far less eager to engage with such a group in the future?
* One wonders if Jim Edgar is gonna keep this up all year. Sure looks like it…
Former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar said Thursday his party’s candidate for governor is wrong on Illinois’ budget crisis and made the case for hiking taxes - the main plank of Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn’s platform. […]
Asked after the speech if Brady’s budget plans - cutting taxes and services to balance the budget - were realistic, Edgar said Brady needs to “flush out his budget policies” more.
Edgar has previously called Brady’s plan for a 10 percent across-the-board cut “naive,” which he conceded Thursday led to angry calls from Brady backers.
“I know that upsets their camp when I say that,” Edgar said to laughter from the students, teachers and residents.
The former governor also whacked the current governor for his frequent flip-flops, saying Gov. Quinn needs to think things through before he says things.
* My Sun-Times column today is about how Quinn appears to be doing what he can to lose this thing to Brady…
Gov. Pat Quinn is one odd duck.
Forget about the 30-year-old briefcase he calls “Betsy.” Or the constant references to his Super 8 VIP card to stress his frugality, even though Super 8 discontinued the VIP card program years ago. Or his penchant for blue-and-purple-striped ties.
That’s just quirkiness. Some of it is even endearing. Quinn also has a very big heart, and I know for a fact that he’s a decent man in private.
But he’s odd, man. Really, really odd.
Five straight polls in the past month have shown Quinn trailing conservative Republican state Sen. Bill Brady by an average of about 10 points. That’s the 100 percent pro-life, pro-gun, anti-gay rights, anti-union, proud Chicago-bashing Downstater who won the Republican primary by 193 votes and who almost never set foot in Cook County Bill Brady.
Ten points. In “blue” Illinois.
Ten.
And what has Quinn been doing about this impending disaster? Well, for one, he has all but shut down his campaign. Two months since he barely won a primary that he should’ve walked away with and the guy has no campaign manager.
Dawn Clark Netsch did the very same thing after she won the 1994 Democratic gubernatorial primary. It’s not like she would’ve won anyway; 1994 turned out to be a Republican landslide. But it sure did confound a whole bunch of people when she did it.
Quinn and Netsch haven’t gotten along in decades, so you’d think the governor wouldn’t be following her ‘94 playbook during yet another off-year election of a Democratic president’s first term. Yep. Odd.
Quinn has not yet addressed the one issue that almost lost him the primary. In fact, he has made things worse. The governor stubbornly refused to fire his Department of Corrections director for concocting a secret plan to release hundreds of violent felons from prison. That single issue nearly destroyed Quinn and catapulted Dan Hynes into serious contention.
Instead of fixing the problem, Quinn swept out of the department people who had — get this — argued against the director’s early release program. And then a week ago, as if to spit in the eyes of the political gods, Quinn pardoned 147 convicted criminals in one, fell swoop. It’s a veritable Oddapalooza with this guy.
Two polls have shown Quinn’s job approval rating at a George Ryanesque 25 percent. In order to get back into the game and win some hearts and minds, he’ll need to raise a ton of campaign cash. But his staunch support for a sweeping public employee pension reform bill last month has infuriated the unions — the single largest source of campaign money and volunteers a Democrat has.
This week, Quinn sat down for a meeting with a bunch of union leaders at the Chicago Federation of Labor’s headquarters. After being excoriated by the leaders of Service Employees International Union (which contributed almost $2 million to Quinn’s primary campaign), the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the teachers union, Quinn finally had enough. If you can’t convince your members to vote for me over Brady, he reportedly said, then fine. He rose to make a grand exit, but accidentally walked into the kitchen instead. He was forced to make yet another grand exit through the proper door. It was like a bad movie.
Odd, that one.
The governor is doing what he thinks is right. And he may actually be correct on the merits. But being right doesn’t always win elections, and at the moment it looks like he’s doing everything he can to lose. It’s one of the oddest things I’ve ever seen.
