Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Morning shorts

Posted in:

Illinois

* Don’t rush changes in early voting

* Officials still working on power at fairgrounds

“Overall, the fairgrounds needs some major overhaul as far as the electrical systems,” Reitz said Monday. “They don’t have the money to make all of the upgrades they need to do. They fix the problems as they happen. It’s just another need, and it’s not in the budget.”

* Sales tax showdown set for Stroger, board

But those dire warnings have failed to persuade most of the board’s 17 commissioners to back Stroger’s $3.2 billion budget plan, which now calls for increasing the county sales tax to 2 percent from 0.75 percent. That increase would boost the overall

* No deal yet on Cook Co, taxes, budget

* Clean Machines: State deploys decontamination units to speed response to emergencies

* Bradley Worried About Economy

* Governors wrestle with tight budget times

In Illinois, Comptroller Dan Hynes’ report prompted the governor’s office to disclose the $750 million hole in this budget. Not only do lawmakers have to worry about how to come up with enough money to pay next year’s expenses, they need to find more cash this year — or make spending cuts.

* Study: Senators abusing system

Most of the research focuses on officials who paid family members for fundraising and campaign work, and senators whose family members are lobbyists. It also details which senators reimbursed themselves with money from their campaign committees.

* Panel weighs fate of retired racehorses

posted by Kevin Fanning
Tuesday, Feb 26, 08 @ 4:59 am

Comments

I just do not think it is a big deal to pay family members for campaign and fundraising work. You want people you can turst doing this stuff, and I would trust my family members most. Further family memebrs should not have to make the machivellian choice of either working for free or being unable to help a family member!

Comment by Ghost Tuesday, Feb 26, 08 @ 8:39 am
Didn’t former Gov. Ryan place his family members on no show paid positions for other campaigns?

Sorry, bad idea. Too much opportunity for no show, no work positions.
Just look at the cash flowing through the Cook County political system and tell me with a straight face that everyone being paid there is actually doing their jobs. The situation is worse in the campaign staffs. Its simply too difficult to monitor.

Comment by plutocrat03 Tuesday, Feb 26, 08 @ 9:11 am
If you look at the report, you find that Obama and Durbin are listed as reimbursing themselves, and Durban for reimbursing his son. I do not see the problem with reimbursement for expenses such as milage & meals and these add up quickly. I ran for office and over the course of 18 months of campaigning, put 20,000 miles on my car (campaign trips only). At the current Federal rate, that would be $10,000!

Durbin’s $11K seems pretty reasonable to me.

Obama’s $2K seems low, he must have a dedicated campaign car.

The CREW needs to be more nuanced in their criticism.

Report at:
http://www.citizensforethics.org/files/afamilyaffair-senate/FullReport.pdf

Comment by Pot calling kettle Tuesday, Feb 26, 08 @ 9:37 am
I scanned through their exhibits on Durbin and his reimbursements all seem to be for travel…

http://www.citizensforethics.org/il-senate

I’d say our guys are clean.

Comment by Pot calling kettle Tuesday, Feb 26, 08 @ 2:12 pm