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This just in… SGOPs: If SDems kept promise, we have votes for the capital bill

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* 11:53 am - If you’re waiting for the Senate to start doing something, the Senate Democrats’ spokesperson told me a bit ago that they are working on drafting changes and then will go to Rules Committee.

* 12:23 pm - Senate President Jones reportedly told his leaders this morning that he was very close to a deal with the Senate Repubs on the capital/gaming legislation. The meeting broke up when Jones received a call from Senate GOP Leader Watson. So far, though, no Senate Republicans whom I’ve talked to have reported hearing anything about anything today.

* 12:34 pm - Did you know that Tony Peraica has a blog? I didn’t. Hat tip to Carl. Also, the Illinois GOP has a nifty new website.

* 12:59 pm - From a press release…

Illinoisans wasted nearly 203 million hours of additional time on the road, and 141 million gallons of additional gas as a result of traffic congestion in 2005. The additional wasted time and fuel cost the public an equivalent of $3.9 billion, according to the federally sponsored Urban Mobility Report released today by the Texas Transportation Institute.

* 1:44 pm - The Senate Republicans have not yet agreed to the language of the capital/gaming plan. They’ve gone through several drafts, apparently, and can’t pin it down. A Senate GOP spokesperson wouldn’t even go so far a few minutes ago to say that they even have an agreement in principle. And now there are rumors that they may have to stay in town another day. We’ll see. More on the boat stuff in a few.

* 1:51 pm - The boat people are presently unhappy, for various reasons. Casinos in the Chicago area are concerned about where those two new riverboats will go. They don’t want the new boats too close to them. The smoking ban provision is also causing trouble. The proposal would allow the three Mississippi River boats to set aside 25 percent of their casino space for smokers for five years, or until Missouri and Iowa imposed smoking bans of their own. Those three boats don’t think that’s enough, and the other boats want it applied to them as well. Plus, the provision will not be included in the bill. Instead, it will be added as an amendment which could be stripped when the package reaches the Senate floor.

* 1:55 pm - The Senate is coming in. Listen here.

* 2:02 pm - I did finally get a high-level Senate Republican to say that there is a broad-brush agreement, but he didn’t believe that the details had been worked out. He also said he didn’t know why the Senate was coming back to session as I write this.

* 2:06 pm - Here are some comments made by Senate GOP Leader Frank Watson yesterday, courtesy of Metro Networks…

[audio:FrankWatson9-17.mp3]

* 2:07 pm - ABC7 and CBS2 have cameras in the gallery, expecting action, apparently.

* 2:17 pm - Rules Committee is now meeting.

* 2:23 pm - They’ve scheduled an Executive and a Transportation committee for later this afternoon.

* 2:33 pm - OK, here are the bills they’ve posted for committees this afternoon…

* HB 2035 SA 8 is the gaming bill

* HB 3667 SA 1 & 2 is the mass transit bill (essentially the original transit bill, so maybe Senate President Jones has decided to let Cullerton try to run it and see if it can pass)

* SB 1110 SA 5 is the capital projects bill

* SB 785 SA 1 is the bond authorization bill.

I’ve got to go to committee, so post your updates in comments.

* 3:07 pm - The Senate Republicans’ spokesperson just said that if the Senate Democrats did everything they said they were going to do in the capital legislation language then they would put votes on the bills later today. As of right now, though, they’re still going through the legislation.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 11:53 am

Comments

I’m sure LRB is loving that.

Comment by Lotta Liaison Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 12:02 pm
Working on drafts? Going to Rules? Yeah right.

Comment by Anon 1 Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 12:17 pm
lol… well, that’s what they said.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 12:19 pm
But Rich it has been written “The Senate will vote soon ……”
Who is slowing them down? Is Madigan pumping sleep gas in to prevent the rapid action that is needed?

Comment by CaseyJones Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 12:26 pm
I wouldn’t put it past him.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 12:27 pm
“fast” or “early” are not words used in conjunction with the Senate. They fear the early morning light the same way vampires and jazz musicans do.

Bet you a donut this thing today falls thru by 2PM. That still gives enough time to hit a full 18 by dark.

Comment by ZZZ Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 12:33 pm
I have a sense that the senate will actually pass a funding bill today and throw the hot potato(e) to the house. Then it’s a race between the Speaker and gov as to who can nix the deal faster. My money’s on the Speaker. Gov probably will just remain absent from the process, as usual.

Comment by A Citizen Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 1:04 pm
Overslept after watching the GREAT Cubs win last night. So has the Senate already approved everything and gone home? Jones did say they were going to start business at 9:30 a.m., right?

Comment by Steve Trachsel's fan club Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 1:10 pm
did anyone actully see Blaggo in Spi on Monday or we buying the Spin Sisters’ tale?

Comment by CaseyJones Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 1:11 pm
He was here.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 1:12 pm
Just imagine how much congestion could be relived if large companies and the State govt looked into more work from home programs. The Feds already utilize such a program to reduce overheard and traffic congestion.

Comment by Ghost Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 1:12 pm
Ghost-

Telecomuting is a great option for companies and employees who can make it work. Some businesses obviously can’t operate that way (such as manufacturing, restaurants & many service industries) but sales, R&D, information processing and similar businesses could all reap benefits.

From seeing the causes and results of congestion, it is apparent that spending more money on transit, high speed rail, widening roads, building new roads, expanding airports, building new airports, etc. can only get you so far. One must either live and work far away from the congestion, or refuse to step in it as much as possible, to avoid it.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 1:27 pm
I’m struggling to follow what’s going on. Can anyone simply summarize how the Governor/Senate/Madigan would propose to fund the capital legislation and the RTA debacle? Because that’s the issue, right? They’re all in agreement that the capital legislation must pass but differ on whether it should be funded by “gaming” additions or sales tax hikes? And all involved want to bailout the RTA/CTA but differ on how that should be funded, as well? Your help is greatly appreciated by a confused grad student.

Comment by Newbie Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 1:44 pm
Six Degrees of Separation -

“From seeing the causes and results of congestion, it is apparent that spending more money on transit, high speed rail, widening roads, building new roads, expanding airports, building new airports, etc. can only get you so far.”

This is the geist of where I was going. A lot of the capital expansions end up being high cost, causing even more congestion as transportations sections are closed for expansions, and provide minimial alleviation of congestion. In looking at capital spending perhaps we need to consider a cost benefit for expanding or continuing certain capital plans, and look at cheaper solutions. For example, encourage those companies who can to shift works forces or imp,ement work at home programs through tax incentives. Look into using a few well placed high speed rail terminals to shift population centers away from the chicago region. perhaps more roadway at 1.2mil per mile, or bailing out the CTA/RTA as it currently exists are bad ideas. Do all those bus routes and train routes really provide a benefiut equal to their cost. perhaps putting money back into depressed communities to start up local business’s would be a better use of the dollars. A local business would require less travel, etc and revitialize the area. We seem to approach congestion with the same inept tools, build large expensive transportation systemes, without ever stopping to think is this really a good use of the dollars?

Comment by Ghost Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 1:59 pm
The greater metro St. Louis area isn’t much better, either. But I’m sure Chicago is awful.

Time magazine had a great article several years back about the effect of traffic and congestion on the average office worker who lived in the suburbs and drove into a city such as Chicago, LA, DC, Philly, etc. The study the article was based upon basically asserted the idea that no matter how many miles you drive or how long you are in the car, any amount of congestion and traffic will cause anger and emotional problems. Even ultra-calm people have to admit the effects of a day-in, day-out traffic crawl. It would drive me insane!

This is why mass transit systems that are EFFICIENTLY RUN are so important. If you mismanage a transportation system, the whole infrastructure of a city can crumble. If the CTA doesn’t get its act together, it’s possible that some businesses and the IOC will decide Chicago to be an unfit place.

Comment by Team Sleep Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 2:03 pm
So you actually saaw his skinny misshapened torso slinking around the Statehouse?

Comment by CaseyJones Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 2:09 pm
HB 3667 - Cullerton’s CTA bill. He filed a technical amendment.

Do we think that Jones is being forced to show that the Senate can get something done and vote on the Cullerton bill? If so, Jones can legitimately say that he accomplished someting Madigan could not.

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 2:09 pm
TS and Ghost-

There is a continuing debate between “new urbanism” and “sprawl” - one suggests we should try to densify as much as possible and be served by transit, the other suggests we let growth spread from the cities wherever it goes and provide for it, likely with roads.

There is a new train of thought that is considered a “radical” idea, that suggests instead of packing people in or spreading them around highly populated urban areas, we ought to be “dispersing” the entire population for sustainability, with semi-rural living and no population center bigger than 20,000, in order to promote a sustainable, congestion-free society. In areas where this already exists (like 90% of the counties in IL) there are no congestion problems to speak of. It would probably take a nuclear war or 2 to make it happen, but it’s an interesting thought.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 2:13 pm
What did JCAR do with Blaggo’s latest insurance scam? They were meeting today and the Blaggolawyers were going to slip in some emergency rules. Rich send your stringers(aka Trib and Sun TImes out to check)

Comment by Mr. W.T. Rush Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 2:18 pm
Huh huh, Frank Watson said “Crapital” (2:10)

Comment by Beavis Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 2:24 pm
thats cool

Comment by butt head Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 2:25 pm
Now that is what I call lawmaking.
So they’ll back about 5. Everyone will be yelling at VandaliaFrank how he is dishonest (*()^( and then they go home.

Comment by GettingJonesed Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 2:28 pm
Anyone know what SB 1110 is about. doesn’t look like a capital bill but the rest of the three are gaming, GO bonds, and mass Trans. Anyone privy to that.

Comment by Huckleberry Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 2:34 pm
JCAR suspended an emergency rule filed last month that would have required insurance companies to file quarterly reports of various kinds of coverage data starting Sept. 30. The problem was not with the kind of information being sought, but the fact that it was sprung on insurers in the form of an emergency rule that wasn’t really necessary. A regular proposed rulemaking with time for public comment would have sufficed. (There is one in the pipeline now)

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 2:55 pm
Bill, are you smell’n the Bacon yet? I think I got a whiff about a half hour ago.

Comment by A Citizen Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 3:06 pm
I can smell the bacon from 15 blocks away. I also see the veto pen being silent this go around.

2 casinos in Chicago with a Board controlled by appointees of the Mayor and the Governor? Why not license the casinos to the mob? At that rate, we know it would be ran effectively.

Comment by jwscott72 Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 3:34 pm
It’s true, The Outfit does run a darn efficient gambling business! The problem comes in collecting the taxes - They don’t complicate their business with that little detail - that’s what makes them sooo profitable!

Comment by A Citizen Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 3:43 pm
If the SGOPs agree with the capital bill, will they agree to the funding sources, i.e. the bonds and additional gaming to service the debt on the bonds?

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 3:49 pm
I get it, the mayors gotta get the children off of Navy Pier before the gamblers take it over.

Comment by The 'Broken Heart' of Rogers Park Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 3:53 pm
Darn. I forgot about that one little detail!

Comment by jwscott72 Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 4:17 pm
Six, there also isn’t anywhere near the amenities or employment options in the smaller areas. Congestion isn’t typically an issue, but driving 45 miles one-way for work isn’t pleasant, either.

If sprawl continues outward, eventually other areas currently not in the “Chicagoland” area but somewhat(such as Rockford, Kankakee, DeKalb, Belvidere, etc.) would be gobbled up. Prices there would raise even higher and they would be caught up in the sweeping, outward expansion.

Comment by Team Sleep Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 4:28 pm
ANON 2:55 they had to spring it cause the Dept rules czar was on vacation and they want to do it behind his back. “Shot, Aim,Ready”strikes again.
TeeHee

Comment by GettingJonesed Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 4:37 pm
TS-

If “new urbanism” is the trend, land prices in urban areas will skyrocket, too, especially near transit corridors (supply and demand).

Sprawl development also raises land prices in general, but there’s always less development to fill the available land than the market will bear. Witness the recent run-up and crash in land prices in the outlying areas of Kendall, Will, etc. It will take decades and decades for all those farm fields to fill up with houses, if ever.

Dispersion is the best antidote to high land prices, because any liveable acreage is fair game, thus increasing the amount of available land (again, supply and demand). And with telecommuting, etc. it becomes an option, and a much less congested one.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 6:21 pm
It’s criminal to pave over so much good Illinois farmland and “wilderness” areas with short-sighted sprawl. Denser living with better transit is the only sane approach, long-term. If we can organize it right, the denser living opens up more surrounding land for parks as well as farming. Absoultely, the state should not support sprawl, and the various regulations and other means of “encouragement” or incentive and disincentive at the state’s disposal should be aimed at discouraging sprawl wherever possible.

Comment by Gregor Tuesday, Sep 18, 07 @ 6:34 pm