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* Apparently, the war of words between the House Democrats and the governor’s office hasn’t died down. From a story about the governor’s failure to file his line-item/reduction vetoes of the state’s operating budget within the time frame he promised…
“Under the motto ‘We don’t know and we don’t care,’ these people haven’t paid any attention in five years, so it’s going to take them a long time to figure it out now,” Steve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, said.
Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff denied the delay indicates trouble finding places to cut. She said it simply takes time to put together and review such a long veto.
* And the buck-passing never ends. This is from a story about how East St. Louis’ school district is losing out on $29 million in school construction funds because the governor waited until mid August to sign the supplemental approp bill…
The Blagojevich administration says that before it can hand out the money, schools must sign formal agreements spelling out the details of their projects. Those agreements had to be in place before the end of the fiscal year, June 30.
Blagojevich didn’t sign the measure into law until Aug. 13. His office says lawmakers sent him the legislation so late just two weeks before the deadline that there wasn’t time to finish the agreements even if he had signed it immediately.
“We share the frustration of these school districts. Lawmakers shouldn’t have gotten their hopes up if they weren’t going to deliver,” said Justin DeJong, a spokesman for the governor’s budget office.
“It’s just not possible to do in two weeks what takes two months under normal circumstances.”
Lawmakers? Huh?
Here’s a simple fact that is being ignored: The governor’s office strung out those school districts for months, never giving them a straight answer. And, now they want to blame someone else. They could’ve just told the districts in June that they couldn’t process the paperwork, but nobody was able to get a straight answer out of them about their grants until after the guv signed the supplemental.
* Sen. Garrett made a good point as well…
Sen. Susan Garrett, D-Lake Forest, called the latest twist on school construction grants “a bureaucratic nightmare.”
School officials “felt that we had crossed the finish line and we were ready to go until it became apparent that paperwork, (in quotation marks) needed to be found, filled out, whatever,” Garrett added. “I mean, it’s one thing to say you didn’t fill out the form, but when there’s no form to fill out, it’s an impossible task.”
* Meanwhile, we now have another phony issue to deal with…
Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s leading ally in the House maintained that the budget proposal sent to the governor failed to renew spending for about $500 million in projects approved in previous years, stifling funding for some projects already under way.
“The budget that passed the House and the Senate essentially pulls the rug out from under these communities that have begun purchasing and building needed public-works projects on the full faith and credit of the state,” said Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Collinsville).
But a top aide to House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) said the issue can be resolved within months. […]
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown played down the matter, saying money for older projects could be reappropriated in January, when Democratic votes are all that are needed to pass such legislation.
The Repubs opposed the reapprops in the budget. Hoffman knows that.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:03 am
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Let’s not forget that every year for the last several years, the Democrats have run a capital bill roll call in which the Republicans uniformly voted against capital funding for the 24 school districts. Then, there’s the roll call on the supplemental. Finally, there’s the actions of the executive branch since the supplemental passed.
The recent actions with regard to the schools’ funding are appalling, to say the least. If it was an honest mistake it was a colossal one (for which no apology has been forthcoming), and if it was a calculated maneuver it was an unforgivable one. But let’s not let the justified anger over this recent outrage obscure the fact that these districts have been caught up in political posturing and gamesmanship for years. The latest twist in the saga may be the most grotesque by an order of magnitude, but it may be impossible to find anybody at the statehouse whose hands are entirely clean on this issue.
Comment by Gus Frerotte's Clipboard Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:27 am
$500 million! That is the same amount the Gov says he wants for his health care. Interesting!
Comment by anon Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:31 am
Abby says it takes time to put together such a long veto. Maybe that’s true for this group, but it only took Schnorf 5 days in 2002 to veto over $550 million out of that budget. And by the end of the 6th day, the legislature had acted on all of them and everybody went home, and vendors got paid.
What’s the hold-up now? I think Steve Brown hit the nail on the head.
Comment by Incompetence Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:32 am
So if the money is approporated for the schools, but they can not access becuase they failed to submit a non-existant form during a time frame when there was no money available (twist on hitchikers guide to the galaxy demolition plans segment)… what happens to the money??? Does this bizarre scenerio let the gov or CDB redirect the funds for other capitol projects? If so then this seems to be a very calcualted ploy to deprive the schools of funding and shift it to gov/Jones pork projects.
Comment by Ghost Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:44 am
The Governor concocted a scheme to punish his detractors and sent it to his minions to implement without guidance on what is pork and what is gravy. I would bet the Governor has no idea what is in his budget.
Comment by Garp Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:45 am
I hope Jay Hoffman gets something gravy out of his alliace to the guv, because if he doesn’t he will look silly for all of this.
I also think Mr. DeJong bumped his head on the marble floors of the capitol. Lawmakers are the ones who go to bat for these projects and communities. While pork itself is not good, some towns and cities would never get new fire engines or a.c. for their schools if it weren’t for the lawmakers in their area.
Comment by Team Sleep Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:50 am
Buried at the bottom of the Trib article is why the Republican’s refused to support these reappropriations.
“Republican votes now are needed to pass a budget in the legislative overtime session that began June 1, but GOP lawmakers refused to go along if money for the old projects were included, Brown said.David Dring, spokesman for House Republican leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego), said all four caucuses agreed to leave out past projects when Republicans refused to allow generic budget line items that identified dollar amounts but did not specify projects.”
Once again, an unrestricted “debit card” for this governor is not well advised. The GA has seen that show before.
Comment by True Comparison Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:56 am
Jay Hoffman’s future is “as bright as Blago’s”.Who in the house will have anything to do with Hoffman given his blind and stupid allegiance to the Gov.It’s one thing to be loyal,it’s death to be stupid in politics.
Comment by MOON Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 10:58 am
TeamSleep, Hoffman already looks silly. He doesn’t need any help doing that.
Comment by Milorad Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 11:08 am
Has anyone heard if there will be a challenge to Rep. Hoffman in the Democratic Primary next February?
Comment by fedup dem Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 11:10 am
Fedup, no way would Punkinhaid lose a primary, I don’t care who it is.
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 11:12 am
What size Tin Foil hat does Punkinhaid wear?
Comment by Poolside at Hotel Ibiza Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 11:17 am
Rich, did I miss Punkinhaid’s letter? It ought to be rich.
Comment by True Comparison Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 11:41 am
If this has been clearly defined I apologize for missing the explanation. Is it the Governor’s intent to AV all pork line items inserted into the budget document? Does the Governor have different intentions for line items included by House Dem vs. House Rep vs. Senate Dem vs. Senate Rep?
I have one $25,000 pork project submitted by a House Dem and one $750,000 pork project submitted by a Senate Rep. Both are included in the budget document as line items, neither are included in the Senate Dem “bulk” line item.
Comment by Mayor Lightner - Oreana, IL Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 11:49 am
Punkinhead is finished….how about Callis, Machino, or Sheriff Hertz?
Comment by Madison County Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 1:30 pm
Hoffman is not in any serious danger to lose any race any time soon. He has too much money and too much popularity in his own district. And he is a good speaker and campaigner, so he can relay his message well enough to keep himself viable.
Comment by Team Sleep Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 1:55 pm
Hoffman may not lose a primary, but it would send a BIG message. Lots of labor people are getting very unhappy, because they aren’t working. Add in the teachers unions and Hoffman doesn’t have anyone left but the trial lawyers. Hoffman is vulnerable to a good Republican candidate. Hoffman only won with 61% of the vote in the last election, when he historically has gotten 68% plus. This was down year for Republicans and Hoffman had a weak opponent. His district is trending Republican with the district numbers now about 56% to 44% Republican. Republicans in our area are hoping Hoffman continues this self destructive behavior.
Comment by Larry Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 2:12 pm
they got rid of him once before ?? ….didn’t they ?
Comment by annon Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 4:25 pm
Larry–Keep living in a dream world, there is no way Hoffman loses in the primary nor the general, in fact I would not be surprised if the R’s don’t even run anyone.
Comment by pyr man Thursday, Aug 23, 07 @ 8:21 pm
Hoffman is the best thing that has happened to the area. He can actually deliver.
Comment by Eye on Springfield Friday, Aug 24, 07 @ 8:56 am