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More on the House hearings

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Illinois

* Apparently, the governor’s top aides are holding press conferences before many of the House hearings to discuss Gov. Blagojevich’s vetoes. I told you about one such instance yesterday, but the practice continues…

One day before a hearing to rally against cuts Gov. Rod Blagojevich made to local projects, a top official from his administration urged lawmakers to find new funding for those projects without raising taxes.

“The bottom line is if we are going to restore funding for worthy projects, we have to find revenues to pay for them. . . . We cannot afford to raise income and sales taxes on the backs of people who already pay their fair share,” said Barry Maram, director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.

Reading between the lines of what Maram said and what David Phelps told reporters earlier this week (”If lawmakers want to identify new funding to pay for the projects and they can do it without raising taxes on people, we would be happy to work with them”), there’s some good news for those who saw their projects vetoed. There still might be a chance to restore those line items, but that would mean everybody would have to somehow find a way to get along, which they haven’t done yet.

* Meanwhile, during the Decatur hearing yesterday…

Blagojevich staffers were in the audience, handing out press releases to counter the anti-Blagojevich tone of the meeting.

“These (budget) reductions will allow over 500,000 people to get affordable health care” by freeing up money for Blagojevich’s universal health insurance initiative, stated one handout. “ . . . If your legislators had passed enough new revenue to fund everything in the budget this year, these cuts wouldn’t have happened.”

* There was a whole lot of animosity at that hearing…

“My demeanor is one of civility and decorum,” a visibly angry Dan Lightner, mayor of tiny Oreana, near Decatur, said. “. . . I cannot sit, however, quietly and allow my community and your communities to play midwife to the governor’s ill-conceived budget vetoes.”

The cuts cost his community a $750,000 drinking-water pipeline project. “Pork?,” Lightner asked. “No!”

Clinton Mayor Ed Wollet testified that the $50,000 in state money that was budgeted for the Central Illinois town, then vetoed, would make it impossible to update the local firehouse. Without the work, Wollet said his city “cannot go to the next generation of fire trucks” a serious problem for a fire department that would be the first responder to any accident at the local nuclear power plant.

Mount Zion Mayor Don Robinson told how his town lost $1.1 million in the cuts that had been budgeted for a long-awaited highway bypass project and he expressed bitterness that Blagojevich plans to use funds from those cuts to fund a health insurance initiative that most in the Legislature haven’t supported.

Photos from Decatur’s hearing. where about 150-200 people showed up (300 were in Marion)…

* And Bethany Jaeger had some good insight, as always…

So the governor is punishing people who don’t want to compromise on his health care plan, but lawmakers rejected his health care plan because the governor wouldn’t compromise on the funding source. We’re running in circles following these disagreements. Brown, Madigan’s spokesman, blames the governor for not compromising. “He fails to persuade anybody to accept his point of view and refuses to accept a more reality-based proposal. Not a whole lot you can do about that.”

I know the feeling. There’s not a lot we can do about the sideshows going on around the state with little action in Springfield. And when action does return to the Capitol October 2 for the fall veto session, we’ll witness a series of shows about the budget overrides, a capital budget and transportation subsidies. The House is expected to have enough votes to override at least some of the governor’s budget cuts, but who knows whether they’ll have a chance in the Senate. And who knows whether the four caucuses will be able to compromise on a funding source — four new casinos, one new casino, no new casinos — to finance road and school construction projects. And who knows whether lawmakers are willing to stick their necks out by voting for a mass transit plan that raises taxes while knowing the governor will veto it. That would require the four caucuses, again, to compromise and agree to override his veto.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 8:39 am

Comments

I really hate living in Illinois now…I think it’s time to move, this is just too much.

Comment by Jay Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 9:33 am
Just a question, I noticed that Sen. Forby was not in attendence at the meeting in Carterville, yet other Senators were (J. Jones and Leuchtefeld). Does anyone know the reason he was not in attendence? I could guess a few reasons: 1) He was not invited, 2) He was ‘ordered’ not to attend, or 3) Simply non political - he had other plans or on vacation. If anyone knows the answer, it would be really insightful.

Comment by QC Transplant Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 9:55 am
Forby and Rep. Bradley are not on great terms.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 10:03 am
Gov and Speaker are battling for the hearts and minds of interested citizens in these “hearings”. Any reliable feedback yet on which one might be leading? Or are we all losing?

Comment by A Citizen Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 10:08 am
The governor’s office is saying the cuts are a small part of the budget–less than 1% of $52 billion budget. So couldn’t they have just done an across the board reduction of 1% and asked everyone to “share the pain” of providing health care to the state’s most needy?

Comment by Anon Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 10:20 am
Blagojevich can sue everyone he wants to cover his tracks, but he will be slow-roasted across Illinois with these hearings.

When folks hear how they were screwed so that he can play games with our tax dollars, his poll numbers and support will sink even further.

2007 was not the year to play games. It was the year to shore up our fiscal budget and pay down our massive debts.

What Blagojevich has consistently done is play president instead of be governor. His policies reflect a national ambition, not a gubernatorial sensibility. His drive for health care should be done at a national level, his minimum wage increases should have been done nationally, and many of his policies do not take into consideration his role and power as a governor.

Good governors do not treat the Office as a stepping stone to the Presidency. But that is how Blagojevich continually treats it. Blagojevich continually runs for the presidency at our expense.

His major beef with Madigan is that he has national aspirations that are being stymied by a state-focused veteran politician. Blagojevich wants to use Illinois as a model for his forthcoming presidency, but Illinois has not been accommodating to Blagojevich’s political goals.

The results are horrendous. The Governor’s goals and the Speaker’s goals are entirely incompatible. Madigan cultivated his power over 30 years in local and state office, while Blagojevich preens and grins his way into an office he is unsuitable for and only desired in order to reach a higher rung of a personal ladder.

Since 2003, Blagojevich has treated the state budgets as a national budgets, treated local issues as national issues, and trumpeted every policy and initiative as a presidential one. It should be no wonder why he has lost so much goodwill within his own party as his fellow Illinois Democrats are tired of feeling used and abused for his national ambitions.

Blagojevich often challenges political watchers and journalists when we try to understand him because we use a yardstick shaped from years of watching governors. If we start viewing Blagojevich as a perennial presidential candidate, we can start seeing a more logical pattern to his strikingly odd behavior.

Blagojevich isn’t nuts - he just isn’t interested in his current job and primarily uses the Office in a drive for the Oval one.

Comment by VanillaMan Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 11:34 am
Vanilla Man,

Your analysis is spot-on. Blago’s national ambitions are exactly the problem and they should be the lens through which we (and the media)make sense of his otherwise perplexing behavior. Most probably think with the Rezko stuff and other federal investigations he would sensibly have given up those aspirations. That is, clearly, not the case. I’d guess that he probably thinks he’s a good pick for VP if Obama isn’t on the ticket. Ridiculous, but this is Rod Blagojevich we’re talking about.

Comment by FDR's Ghost Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 1:10 pm
VanMan says Blago isn’t Nuts and in the following post FDRsGhost references Blago’s national ambitions . . . what the heck got put into my coffee? I still think he is Nuts and lacks any national status or chance at it. You guys are really making me nervous! Now stop it, stop it now!

Comment by A Citizen Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 1:29 pm
Just a couple of comments: I don’t care who Forby likes or doesn’t like, THIS IS HIS AREA. He should have been at the meeting and if anyone had a gripe about him, he should have taken it like a man. I’m betting he’s going to be on Jones’ side now that there is “relief” from Ameren and Forby can brag about that to his constituents - until they get their rebate checks or credits against the bills they have been unable to pay and realize they got screwed again. This time it was by their very own senator. But anyone who has heard Forby speak knows that his eloquence is beyond description.

Secondly, VanMan, Blago is done at the national level. He is not getting the national recognition for his health program that he had hoped because the legislature is so dysfunctional that the press would focus on that instead. This is a case where he is probably liking no publicity because the national press will crucify this man if he steps one toe into the national arena. Nope, he’s done, both here and nationally.

Comment by Little Egypt Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 1:54 pm
Van Man and LE, it’s true Blago’s chances of ever becoming prez or veep are probably toast, as are his chances of ever being reelected governor — but there’s still a chance he could get appointed to a Cabinet post in a Democratic presidential administration, especially if some kind of new federal agency should be created to oversee health care. (Kind of like the way Tom Ridge got plucked out of the PA governor’s seat after 9/11 to become the first Director of Homeland Security.) This may be what he’s still hoping for.

Comment by Lainer Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 2:10 pm
I’m waiting for Blago to sue me for not voting in ‘06.

Comment by Jay Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 3:49 pm
Oh yeah, I can just see it. Make him Director of FEMA (You’re a good man Brownie). There is not a single cabinet position that Blago would be qualified or capable of running. He wouldn’t play second fiddle too well to the Prez. Plus, he would want his name on everything and it wouldn’t sit well with him that he would have to run press releases by the White House beforehand. Nope, this guy has gone as far as he’s going to go. He may be hoping for a cabinet position but I’m betting it ain’t happenin’.

Comment by Little Egypt Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 4:07 pm
blago is trying to put some lipstick on the pig. No matter how pretty a pig looks, it is still a pig.

Comment by Huh? Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 4:51 pm
Blago asked for this, he thought he was the only one who could club opponents over the head with the Media Stick. He tried to paint the GA (well, the House specifically) as one amorphous bad guy, the way he does with “big bad businesses”. Thanks to his punative vetos, he put a face to the cuts: his! He’s really gotten the GA members off the hook by forcing these cuts in such a way as to take the blame for them, and no amount of these weak rebuttal flyers suggesting the GA surrender are going to help. That’s like the 90-pound weakling on the floor asking the 200-pound boxer if he’s had enough of getting his fist hit with the punk’s face.

With those vetos, Blago’s lit a hundred and two brushfires, one in every county, that are going to burn out his expensively won public support among voters in a firestorm of long-term bad press. His ego took him too far in pushing his agenda, and he’s basically blown all the goodwill he had statewide. How does he think he has the “bully pulpit” after using it for kindling?

Comment by Gregor Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 6:22 pm
But after this term, I’m sure Rod can find a place as a board member or VP with one of those Big Corporations, right? The ones with all the loopholes that were also going to pay the GRT tax all by themselves? If only Enron was still in business; he could run their finance department the same way he’s run the state budget.

Perhaps he will go to work for Emil Jones as his next career. I don’t care to suggest specifics in mixed company.

Comment by Vanilla Man has it 100 percent right Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 6:28 pm
Wow is Blaggo getting whacked or what
How will the Senate stand behind him? Or why should they. Look for downstaters to demand an override vote pronto.

Comment by Mr W.T. Rush Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 7:25 pm
Old AA thinks there is a future Federal role for Blago. Just not as an employee.

Comment by Arthur Andersen Thursday, Sep 13, 07 @ 8:08 pm
early reports from Pekin say Team Blaggo took another one right between the eyes last nite. Look for Senators to start announcing override support soooooon.

Comment by Mr W.T. Rush Friday, Sep 14, 07 @ 6:03 am