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* Mr. Kass somehow managed to pack more sputtering vitriol than usual into this one. One notable example…
All that spending comes with no structural reforms whatsoever in return. But that hasn’t stopped Gov. Big Boy and Boss Madigan and even a few quisling Republicans are bragging about the historic nature of their deal.
He goes on to identify those quislings as the Republican legislative leaders.
Vidkun Quisling was a Norwegian army officer who in 1933 founded Norway’s fascist party. In December 1939, he met with Adolf Hitler and urged him to occupy Norway. Following the German invasion of April 1940, Quisling served as a figurehead in the puppet government set up by the German occupation forces, and his linguistic fate was sealed.
Work cooperatively for the betterment of the state, get called a Hitler lover by an editorial board member at the state’s largest newspaper.
Keep that in mind the next time the paper complains about candidates refusing editorial board interviews.
…Adding… Here’s some of what those horrible traitors did this spring…
* In response to #MeToo, state lawmakers approved sweeping legislation to fight sexual harassment in Illinois: “Hopefully, it will change not only the behavior in Springfield, but across the state in the workplace,” said Rezin, a Morris Republican. “If I heard of someone being harassed, I would bring it to the attention of superiors. The complaint seemed to go no further. Now, at least, the individual can file a complaint in a confidential manner and an independent inspector general will investigate their claim. That’s so important.”
* Editorial: Speaking as one is how you get stuff done: Rockford’s wins went beyond the big four — casino, video gaming fees, airport and rail. There were other “really amazing things,” McNamara said. There was more money for Rockford University, Rock Valley College, RAMP and the Boys & Girls Clubs. Rockford Mass Transit District did well and there was $250,000 for the Rockford Art Museum. Not Rockford specific, but sure to help the city, there were increases in funding to fight sexual assault, fight domestic violence and improve early childhood education to name just three.
* SIUC Chancellor Dunn: State budget brings good news for SIU: The budget for the 2020 fiscal year includes a 5 percent increase in general operating funding for each institution plus increases in funding for MAP grants, the Illinois AIM High program and more. When added together, the increases total 8.2 percent, reflecting the largest percentage increase for higher education since 1990. The budget also includes increases for capital projects.
* Pritzker’s Nearly $45B Capital Plan Is Way Better for Transportation Than Expected: The bill also includes longterm, sustainable funding for public transportation, with transit receiving $4.7 billion over the first six years and $281 million for each year afterwards. That represents 23 percent of the total transportation spending, or about twice as much as was indicated in the initial proposal.
* From road repairs to transit expansions, $33 billion in capital bill will have ‘monumental’ impact: One big difference in the funding bill passed last weekend compared with previous capital bills is that it not only provides a one-time infusion of funding through bond sales but also sustainable funding for projects, repairs and new equipment over time. Transportation funding is being mostly paid for through a doubling of the state’s 19-cent-per gallon motor fuel tax, starting July 1. The gas tax, last raised in 1990, will be indexed to future inflation increases. One of the most significant road projects funded in the bill is the I-80 expansion, which will get $1 billion. According to Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Guy Tridgell, the project will include replacing two of the state’s most dilapidated bridges, which cross the Des Plaines River in Joliet.
* Illinois doubles fuel tax rates, nixes despised truck fee: One more provision in the bill will end collection of the commercial distribution fee. The Illinois Trucking Association, Midwest Truckers Association, and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association have long pushed to get the fee eliminated.
* Pritzker after Legislature adjourns: ‘Illinois is back’: Advocates for the nursing home industry say the added funding will help stem a tide of 20-plus skilled- and intermediate-care facility closures that occurred over the past five years due to crippling budget cuts and decades-old Medicaid reimbursement rates. “This money means survival,” said Pat Comstock, executive director of the nursing home advocacy group Health Care Council of Illinois. “Our members are thrilled, but they’re also relieved because these dollars are going to provide some much needed relief from the struggles to survive that members are experiencing.”
* Tom Kacich: Capital program full of benefits for area: The capital bill the Legislature approved means $100 million for construction of a math, statistics and data science center at the University of Illinois-Urbana; $195 million for other unspecified improvements at the UI; $118 million for a new science building at Eastern Illinois University; $2.2 million for renovation of a clock tower center and ornamental horticulture facility at Danville Area Community College; and $100 million for unspecified passenger rail improvements on the Chicago to Carbondale Amtrak route.
Shocking.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:09 am
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I mean, Kass is a d-bag, but “quisling” generally just means “traitor” and not a literal Nazi collaborator. What’s more telling is how furious he and other right-wingers in the state become when their extreme minority views don’t hold sway even in their own party.
Comment by Not a quisling Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:13 am
Once you latch on to the ultra right wing that controls the GOP on both state and national levels, a Nazi comparison is almost compulsory.
Nixon is now a liberal, kids.
Comment by efudd Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:15 am
One of the biggest problems with Kass, Katrina and others like them is phoniness. Illinois has been really good to them, where they have paid relatively-low state income taxes for decades, make relatively-high incomes and have the freebie benefit of being born with a certain skin color. If it was so bad here, wouldn’t they have left already? Maybe they enjoy self-induced outrage and victimhood.
Comment by Grandson of Man Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:16 am
Kass sadly has followed the Glen Beck mold. Go as far right as you can till eventually you are all alone wondering why the people in the real world don’t do what you say.
Comment by Not Again Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:17 am
Another example of why I canceled by subscription and will never give them another dime.
Comment by Former Downstater Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:26 am
I’m often told Illinois is hemorrhaging population to low tax utopias like Mississippi and Alabama. Why haven’t Kass and McQuery made the sojourn?
Comment by PJ Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:26 am
I don’t read Kass except when it geta excerpted here. Is “Gov. Big Boy” a regular thing? I know making fun of sombody’s weight is not as bad as calling a somebody a Nazi collaborator but man. How petty and juvenile.
Kass is one (banned word).
Comment by hisgirlfriday Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:28 am
NAQ, Rich just gave you the definition and Etymology of Quisling.
WE aren’t that dumb…
Comment by Someone you should know Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:29 am
Yesterday at the Trib it was very pleasant to see the Chicago Tribune Guild’s solidarity day, so opposite of Kass, Hurricane and the editorial board.
Comment by Grandson of Man Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:35 am
==Gov. Big Boy and Boss Madigan==
This is what passes for clever in troncsylvania? Mike Royko must be spinning in his grave.
Comment by Jocko Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:39 am
===All that spending comes with no structural reforms whatsoever in return.===
If amending the state constitution to allow for progressive tax brackets isn’t a structural reform, then nothing is. Voters get to decide whether they want that structural reform in 2020.
And by the way, Kass, thanks for the Rauner word salad. We like these periodic reminders of what made him so odious.
Comment by Nick Name Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:39 am
While the term “quisling” is a more recent version of “Benedict Arnold” in calling someone a traitor, people who compare anyone to Nazis of WW II are woefully ignorant of exactly how evil that regime was.
Sadly, we’ve sunk so low in political back and forth that anything goes today.
Comment by Streator Curmudgeon Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:40 am
=All that spending comes with no structural reforms whatsoever in return.=
So dropping the franchise tax and the truck fee are not structural reforms?
Seems Kass was too fancy by half and his sputtering is easily debunked.
Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:43 am
Even worse than Kass, the whole Trib edit board has been whacking Springfield for everything it did. My favorite of late is the attack on the capital bill. Yes, there are some pet projects in there but as the Rockford editorial makes clear, “There were other “really amazing things,” McNamara said. There was more money for Rockford University, Rock Valley College, RAMP and the Boys & Girls Clubs. Rockford Mass Transit District did well and there was $250,000 for the Rockford Art Museum.” Pork is in the eye of the beholder. A lot of good projects will get funded out of this bill that they hate so much.
BTW, a lot of this is dictated by Dold and not the result of a fair process on the edit board. Bruce, who was Rauner’s biggest backer, has been consistently putting his thumb on the scale all over the paper. I’ve heard this now from several Tribsters who are frustrated by his approach.
Comment by Chicago Cynic Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:53 am
Why does anyone read the Trib anymore?
Comment by Cheryl44 Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:54 am
=== - Streator Curmudgeon - Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:40 am:
While the term “quisling” is a more recent version of “Benedict Arnold” ===
This.
Comment by Birdseed Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:59 am
I like to imagine him at his typewriter, grinning about his most recent genius turn of phrase. “Heh heh heh, this one’s gonna leave a *mark*.”
It is not.
The Trib needs some young, interesting blood on its ed board. Not more of these nicknamey bursts of predictable hysterics. Even for the Trib, it’s such a weird move. I figured he’d be off to retirement soon, not moving to the ed board. His shtick is so tired.
Comment by lakeside Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 10:59 am
=Why does anyone read the Trib anymore? =
Mutts. Especially when they do Shelter Stories.
Comment by JoanP Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 11:09 am
Kass is a bitter, bitter man. He has always been an outsider with no grasp of “real politics,” or concept of compromise.
Comment by Professor Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 11:13 am
I’m with the first comment about the widespread use of “quisling” nowadays, but I would like to see Kass address the part about Republicans getting more concessions in one day from Pritzker than they did in 4 years of Rauner’s way.
Comment by Blake Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 11:16 am
Words matter and language matters. If people want to claim Kass didn’t mean to make Nazi comparisons, get out the dictionary and start with etymology.
Comment by Precinct Captain Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 11:20 am
IL GOP has to decide whether or not Kass and Jeanne and the Eastern Bloc goofs from SE Illinois are going to represent the path of the party going forward. This spring it looked like the normal, get-things-done, Brady and Durkin wing took over but one wonders whether or not GOP primary voters will let that stand.
Comment by Lester Holt’s Mustache Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 11:25 am
Fundamentally he compared Gov. Pritzker and Illinois legislators to Nazis.
Comment by Skokie Man Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 11:30 am
=Why does anyone read the Trib anymore? =
City Hall reporting. The sports pages. The business section reporting. That’s what I pay for.
#ymmv
Comment by Chicago Bars Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 11:33 am
==So dropping the franchise tax and the truck fee are not structural reforms?==
I wouldn’t consider either of these reforms as much as bug fixes. Blago’s truck fee was dropped only because the motor fuel tax was raised. The trucking industry’s biggest beef was that CDF went into GRF and not the transportation fund. And Illinois is an extreme outlier on the franchise tax.
Comment by City Zen Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 11:35 am
It’s clear that he didn’t bother to read the capital bill, the budget nor his own paper’s coverage of those. Instead, his random right wing talking point generator kicked-in and voila: a column is finished. Time to have a three hour lunch.
It’s a lot like the knucklehead GOP congressmen who haven’t read the Mueller report yet know it exonerates the President because that’s what Fox News told them.
I’m old enough to remember when there was an intellectual foundation for conservatism. Those were the days.
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 11:37 am
The derp has always been strong in that one.
Comment by Northsider Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 11:41 am
Kass wants to be Royko so badly that he can almost taste it.
Comment by btowntruthfromforgottonia Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 11:52 am
=I wouldn’t consider either of these reforms as much as bug fixes. Blago’s truck fee was dropped only because the motor fuel tax was raised. The trucking industry’s biggest beef was that CDF went into GRF and not the transportation fund.=
That is a structural reform by it’s very definition.
=And Illinois is an extreme outlier on the franchise tax.=
And now it is gone.
Chalk up another fine pro-business, business friendly, growing business reform according to the business lobbies as reported on this blog.
Just their thoughts, not me speaking on their behalf.
Comment by JS Mill Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 11:55 am
The Reader should revive “Bob Watch” as “Kass Watch” and have someone “Read Kass So You Don’t Have To!”. It would be a very popular feature for the Sun-Times.
Comment by formerpro Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 12:54 pm
Hitting the center square head on
Comment by Rabid Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 12:57 pm
formerpro - Cruel and unusual punishment comes to mind if The Reader forces someone to read Kass as a permanent assignment.
Comment by West Side the Best Side Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 1:41 pm
Thankfully, Kass and the Trib are increasingly becoming irrelevant
Comment by Morty Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 1:59 pm
= Thankfully, Kass and the Trib are increasingly becoming irrelevant =
Who says mass-appeal is required for relevancy?
Comment by Dirty Red Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 4:03 pm
Take away the K and there you have him.
Comment by Left Leaner Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 4:28 pm
Anyone can support their assertions with some “cherry picking”, eh, Rich?
Comment by PrairieDog Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 5:34 pm
Best weather page in America.
Comment by Mugwump Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 5:36 pm
==Kass wants to be Royko so badly that he can almost taste it.==
Hard to tell what Kass wants, but hyperbole ain’t wit.
Comment by Da Big Bad Wolf Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 8:07 pm
Wow. Kass has gone round the proverbial bend.
Comment by CEA Tuesday, Jun 11, 19 @ 8:21 pm