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On the bus, Day 2

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Illinois

Actually, I’m not on the governor’s bus at the moment. Still in the hotel waiting to leave.

If you were expecting a Capitol Fax today, there wasn’t one. A big reason I’ve avoided tours like this in the past, particularly on the campaign, is that I usually try to write a few stories a day on completely different topics, and riding on a bus chatting with an always chatty governor isn’t exactly conducive to news gathering.

As I mentioned yesterday, most of the conversations with Blagojevich have been off the record - another reason why there’s no Capitol Fax today. Keeping it off the record and informal is what I normally do if I’m having dinner with a legislative leader. It cuts through most of the normal political BS and the ever-present double-talk and helps me understand what’s really going on and gives me an idea how that person is thinking.

While I can’t tell you what we discussed, the conversations have been satisfyingly frank and straight-forward. There’s been plenty of levity, of course, but we’ve gotten to the heart of several issues that I’ve been wondering about for weeks, months, even years. I wanted to do the whole tour because I figured he could script a day. The object was to get just a few minutes of reality somewhere during these four days. I surpassed that goal yesterday, and more.

A couple of quick notes. The first thing out of his mouth yesterday was, “Where’s Paul?” My intern, Paul Richardson, made a very favorable impression on the guv during our interview a few weeks back. He seemed a little disappointed that Paul wasn’t on the tour.

Also, my parents showed up for the Quad Cities stop yesterday. To say they were skeptical of the gross receipts tax idea would be a huge understatement. One of my four brothers has a business that they (and he) believed would be impacted. But when told that the GRT would not be levied on products that he ships out of state (which is most of his business) they started to come around.

This is one topic that Blagojevich and I spent some time on yesterday. The immediate opposition to this tax hike has been intense and broad-based and lots of businesses that won’t be hit directly are still completely and absolutely opposed (although there is the pyramiding aspect of this idea that troubles people whose own business won’t be taxed but could see the cost of their suppliles and services increase).

It’s a complicated issue and not easily explainable in press-pop sound bytes and 30-second TV ads. But he’s gonna have to calm people down before they’ll be willing to listen, and I’m still not sure how he can pull that off, especially with stories like this one from the AP…

Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Monday that he’s ready for “the fight of the century” over a massive new business tax, and he suggested that such critics as the Rev. Jesse Jackson are responding to pressure from financial supporters. […]

“Hit the road,” he said to business groups. “We will not raise taxes on the working people of Illinois.” […]

Blagojevich said in an interview with The Associated Press that Jackson has changed his tune since earlier this year. The governor said the two men talked then and Jackson “thought it was a fantastic idea.” Blagojevich said Jackson was “extremely excited” when he talked about his plans and corporations not paying their fair share.

“I think he’s getting calls from his contributors,” Blagojevich said, noting that he and lawmakers are getting the same pressure to “go easy on contributors and have an unfair tax system and screw your constituents.”

Going after Reverend Jackson is probably not the best idea he’s ever head, to say the least.

I’ll blog again later today, but here’s a Treo photo of the bus…

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 9:39 am

Comments

Wow great job Mr. Richardson!!!

Comment by Levois Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 10:10 am
Great looking bus….bet you get all the cool chicks with it….any explanation why Sen. mike jacobs was at the rally…must have been the free shrimp because he told everyone in Springfield last week that the GodRodTax sucked.

Comment by GettingJonesed Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 10:25 am
Rod calling out Jesse Jackson for carrying water for his contributors raises the governor’s stature in my book.

And I suspect I’m not the only one sick of Jackson’s self-serving shtick.

Jackson recording radio ads in favor of ComEd raising electric bills shows what the deal is with Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Comment by Carl Nyberg Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 10:31 am
Is that an electric bus? Is it running on biodiesel, vegetable oil, or biodiesel? How many miles to the gallon do you think the bus gets? Why is it, do you think, that Blagojevich couldn’t take a train tour of the state? Perhaps our mass transportation infrastructure is insufficient?

A Governor should set an example. We won’t need to worry about a GRT if climate change makes our planet uninhabitable. Just like the catastropic earthquake that is expected from the New Madrid fault system in Southern Illinois, we are completely unprepared. The last big earthquake from this system rang church bells in Washington DC and caused the Mississippi river to flow backwards. This is a disaster waiting to happen–that we know will happen–yet our building codes don’t even call for earthquake resistant buildings. Why?

We have real and present dangers facing us–threatening our very survivial; and that is why it’s crucial–it’s critical–to put people into office that are less interested in the politics, the money, and the power. We need people in office that are willing to do the right thing, no matter what the political cost.

Comment by Squideshi Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 10:43 am
Rich, sounds like you have been swayed by the governors point of view. If it doesn’t affect you then it’s a good plan. But Rich your slanted view is not the majority view(thank God). I expected better from you.

Comment by nomoretax Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 10:51 am
this kinda reminds me of the old urban myth about how airplane oxygen masks that drop down from the overhead compartments would force passengers to breathe sedatives to keep passengers calm and complacent in the event of an emergency. Sounds a little like the masks have already dropped down from the bus ceiling…

Comment by team america, world police Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 11:03 am
Rich, Whatever you do, Don’t drink the Kool-Aid! I worked back stage at a concert venue many years ago, the rule was: never get on the bus. I see now it was a good rule.

Comment by Frustrated GOP Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 11:05 am
Rich, Why don’t you tell us what straight talk changed your mind? I agree with GOP you shouldn’t have gotten on the bus.

Comment by nomoretax Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 11:11 am
Be careful Rich. Be very very careful. I’m sure the Governor comes across very charming.
But the fact is he’s been dealing with the devil that last 4 years. He knows it and so does everyone else!

Comment by Cult of Personality Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 11:13 am
wow you guys are harsh. god forbid someone present an opposing view point. read the post again folks, where does Rich even come close to saying he supports the plan? the only thing I read was that he thinks the governor needs to calm people down so that they will at least listen to the plan. you guys read so much into something that isn’t even there.

Comment by Robbie Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 11:27 am
The Governorâ€™s statewide production
Is a transparent act of seduction.
Beware of the charm,
For this tax will do harm.
The economy will see a reduction.

Comment by Limerick Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 11:29 am
Robbie,Tell me how to calm down when your business will be directlly impacted by this foolish tax. I employ over 50 people and believe me I will have to layoff up to half of them to meet my tax obligation. How is that helpful to the ecomony? Blagojevich will ruin our state ecomony and sorry I can’t seem to grasp the opposing view!

Comment by nomoretax Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 11:36 am
I talked to a resturant owner over the weekend, he was looking at putting in a second store in another community. He explained that when the Gov put forth the tax he stopped the idea. With his margins as they are it’s not worth doing. BTW, that’s 25 jobs not created next year in a small community. Too bad really. hey, how’s taht All Kids thing going? Let’s see a list of who really is taking the plan. I can get a list from every other Insurance group of accepting doctors, why not All Kids.

Comment by Frustrated GOP Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 11:44 am
Actually, I’d cut Rich something of a break. He has to be on a bus with these guys all day, all week, and I’m sure the Gov’s Office monitors this blog.

You can’t hide on a bus.

Comment by Bubs Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 11:44 am
Rich, can will you post some pics of the bus’ interior?

Comment by GA Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 11:48 am
nomoretax - When did I ever endorse the tax? That’s the same point I made about Rich. You instantly assume I am for the tax, when in reality you have no idea of my stance. It’s not about where I stand on the issue, its about your ASSumptions.

Comment by Robbie Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 11:53 am
I know Rich has to be on the bus and I know the deal but we still need to get our licks in and ensure a sense of reality to this whole dog and ponny show. The fact is the gov. has hing his hat on something that drives business away from the state and economically makes no sense. He and his party have driven up the state debt, continue to spend beyond ability to pay without making any attempt to bring business in the state. The GRT is another trial and error attempt by this administration just like so many other programs, well documented here.

Comment by Frustrated GOP Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 11:54 am
Robbie, Tell us where you stand on the issue?

Comment by nomoretax Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 11:56 am
Gee, how’s this for irony. The Prevost bus the Gov is riding around in is made in Canada. Eh?

Comment by If It Walks Like a Duck... Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 12:03 pm
What’s with you guys today? Rich has a cool opportunity to hear and discuss frankly some issues with the Gov. If the past behavior is a good predictor of present behavior than we can all relax and rest assured that Rich will have both sides when he is done. Stop giving the guy such a hard time for listening to both sides! (However, I doubt anything that could be said would convince me that the GRT is anything other than a horrible idea)

Comment by leigh Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 12:14 pm
“The sky is falling, the sky is falling, Ill have to fire everyone, Ill go out of business, Ill move to Missouri,…”
The public won’t be fooled by Whitley,Gidwitz,and Baise.
85% of businesses will be exempt!Anything exported will be exempt. Only greedy,rich, republicans( ok maybe some greedy, rich dems too) will be hurt. Don’t believe the highly paid flacks!!!
If you don’t like Illinois, the people’s state, hit the road. It is out turn now.

Comment by Bill Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 12:34 pm
Bubs,
“Iâ€™m sure the Govâ€™s Office monitors this blog.”
What makes you think that?

Comment by Bill Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 12:35 pm
While the gov is rolling around the state in a bus, his people are making directors of state agencies figure out how to stage phony events to tout the GRT. Do we have a great governor or what?

Comment by Fed-up state employee Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 12:47 pm
Fed-up,
since you asked, Yes…we do.

Comment by Bill Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 12:49 pm
Bill,

What about the people that will end up paying for the tax through higher prices, I dont think they will agree with you about not being hurt. Or the business that will not be directly taxed but will have to spend more on supplies. Or the people that will have a hard time finding jobs as companies will have less money to invest in expanded production.
There are going to be a lot more people negatively effected than “greedy” Republican and Democrats.
It seems a pretty good chunk of the public is not being fooled by the Governor and believes that he is breaking his campaign pledges.

Comment by RMW Stanford Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 1:01 pm
Bill,

ROTFL!!! I suppose they don’t read the papers either, huh?

The campaign never stops with this crowd, and all political campaigns monitor and seek to manipulate the media, in the time honored tradition of American politics. Why the heck do you think Rich Miller is on that bus, having dinner with Blago, and whatever else is going on? But I’m confident Rich Miller is very aware of the smoke billowing towards his butt.

Thank you for the humor in questioning it! It was a laugh on a cloudy day.

Comment by Bubs Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 1:01 pm
Every now and then a post will go up that smokes out what really drives people. Haters worried that a politician is gonna cast some sort of “evil spell” on me pretty much shows their true colors.

Relax, take a deep breath. And for those who can’t, bite me.

:).

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 1:04 pm
Bill, your are really the governor right. Now walk away from the keyboard.

Comment by nomoretax Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 1:04 pm
yes, this is clearly an unfriendly environment for business. workers comp, & minimum wage, to name just a few, and now GRT. I for one am not troubled. any business that can leave already has. How many employees did Totota and United air take to to Indiana. How many will Honda bring online on the other side of teh Wabash River.

jobs? we dont need no stinkin jobs, we have chicago and healthcare for all.

Comment by The Horse Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 1:09 pm
This is a great opportunity to hear what the gov has to say. It adds one more dimension to observe and to learn. Not only can Rich learn from the gov, but can observe and learn by the reactions and actions of those around him. Enjoy the trip and learn as much as you can. We need the knowledge that you can share.

Comment by Justice Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 1:17 pm
nomoretax - not that anyone other than you cares, I most likely will not support the grt as a personal opinion. I don’t know as much as I need to about it so I can’t be for sure, but to me it seems to over the top. Though as a side note I will be moving to Iowa this summer so I won’t have to worry as much about Illinois problems.

Comment by Robbie Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 1:21 pm
Rich is in Cancun this week.

This is very much an April Foolâ€™s Week gag.

Comment by Establishment Republican Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 1:43 pm
- Bill - Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 12:34 pm:

“…Illinois, the peopleâ€™s state…”
———————————————-

Sounds vaguely Marxist….

Comment by Fan of the Game Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 1:55 pm
nomoretax,

I laughed pretty hard when you outed Bill as Blagojevich!

Yes what a great governor indeed, while the rest of the nation enjoys economic boom and unemployment of 4.5%, Illinois has an unemployment rate of 6.7%! But wait, we almost came in at the bottom (43rd) of the states in job production last year! Now the Blagojevich (aka Bill) is telling businesses to ‘take a hike’ if they do not like his GRT tax plan.

We really are reaching for the bottom!

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 2:03 pm
Bill
Yeah, only greedy Republicans are upset because all that money that the Governor raised for the last election came from $20 checks for working people….

Look what happened to truck registrations when they raised the taxes on those. This is going to have some impact on business, no the sky may not fall but it is going to have some impact.

Any time you move that much cash into government it has to come from somewhere.

In Bill’s world it may all come from us Republicans who will now be able to only use $20 bills to light our cigars instead of $50. But if it ends up being less profit, that is still money that is out of the economy. If it is less money for new equipment or tools, that is still money out of the economy.

As for the 85% of business, what defines a business in this state? Is it every entity that files a schedule C? Those registered with the state? Single employee LLCs?

Comment by OneManBlog Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 2:06 pm
Anon again lies about the unemployment situation in Illinois.

He doesn’t want to tell you that it is actually lower than the nationwide average (4.1% compared to 4.5%)….

… because that would be telling the truth.

Comment by steven Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 2:08 pm
Steven, what difference does it make what the unemployment rate is. Unfortunately it will only go much higher if the governors GRT takes effect in 2008. May guess it will exceed the national average.

Comment by nomoretax Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 2:14 pm
Are you kidding me? You mean in order to do more we have to pay more? We can’t fix our problems, improve our systems and move the state forward without it costing more? I always thought you could do more with less … it’s just about more accountability, right?

Comment by YNM Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 2:19 pm
Fan,
It sounded democratic to me.

Comment by Bill Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 2:21 pm
Actually I can’t wait till this bus ride/tour and GRT thang runs it’s course. Let’s get back to what really ails Illinois and that’s CORRUPTION.

Comment by Free Tibet Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 2:38 pm
I find it disconcerting that the governor insists that 85 percent of all businesses in Illinois will be exempt from his GRT when COO John Filan tells the Chamber of Commerce that all businesses will be subject to the GRT after the income tax is eliminated (published in the State Journal-Register and elsewhere). Just wondering which version is the truth?

Comment by Commonsense in Illinois Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 2:44 pm
Rich -

What bus company is providing the ride to the Governor? Someone mentioned its a Canadian bus…is he using an Illinois bus service - I would assume so.

Comment by elgin Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 4:19 pm
The actual unemployment rate in Illinois for Feb 2007 is 4.8 which means that Illinois ranks 36th, which happens to be up .2 from January and .8 from Nov 2006.

steven and Anon, if you don’t like the numbers take it up with BLS.

Comment by Actual Uemployment Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 4:21 pm
Bubs,

Big freakin’ deal if the Guv’s people monitor the blog. What? Now Blago doesn’t think the First Amendment applies to him and his silly ideas?

I will admit, this blog has gotten soft since it won a political blog award. The edge it used to have (hit hard on REAL issues) is what made it what it was. But it ain’t my blog so who am I to decide which direction it goes?

Comment by Papa Legba Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 5:38 pm
Papa

Do you mean the comments are soft or the content of the blog itself? I for one have always felt that Rich does a good job of putting the content out there, inviting discussion, and piping in when he feels the need, the urge, or whatever. What do you think should be done here that isn’t currently?

Should we all be on the lookout for papalegba.com sometime soon?

Comment by YNM Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 5:48 pm
When they calculate your business’ eligibility to pay GRT, are they counting some or all your annual inventory, and how? Say you’re a car dealership, I’m sure over a million dollars worth of vehicles or more could pass thru your place in ayear’s time, but it’s not like you either paid that much for them or made that much off of them. Most of them are passing thru on consignment. Those that don’t, you’re making maybe ten percent or less off their book value when you turn them around. is this hypothetical dealership going to get charged GRT as if they really “owned” 2 million dollars worth of cars? What about other companies that have large inventories of things that pass thru? Like lumberyards, tractor and combine dealers, aircraft dealers, computer hardware, grocery stores, restaurants, etc.?

Comment by Question about GRT Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 6:33 pm
YNM,

I was referring to the content and questions being posed. IMHO, there seemed to be an abrupt change in the tenor beginning around the first of the year. Less provocative and biting. The criticisms of certain, almost every, elected official has all but vanished. Do we ever hear a bad word about a certain senator with the initials B.O. even when there is negative news to report?

It’s just my observation, but topics seem watered down, more bland and set-up as to keep the responders from “ripping” on our elected officials.

Dare I say it has morphed into a more gentile blog as if to curry favor with the under the Dome crowd?

I think others have notice a change also by some of the comments that are posted from time to time.

But that’s just my opinion, and I may be wrong

Although it hasn’t (and won’t) stop me from visiting on a regular basis and commenting occasionally. It is still a good blog, just a tad more tame.

Comment by Papa Legba Tuesday, Apr 3, 07 @ 8:23 pm