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Harmon on retail theft proposals, items from a recent budget poll, pandemic laws and the state of American democracy

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* Brian Mackey interviewed Senate President Don Harmon this week. Let’s start with crime

Brian Mackey: House Republican Leader Jim Durkin is pushing for a new crime of organized retail theft punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Would you support something like that? Do you support moving back into the realm of enhancing penalties, as they say?

Senate President Don Harmon: I don’t think that penalty enhancements work. I think the real motivator is the swiftness and certainty that there will be some punishment. I know Leader Durkin went to the press room and made a big to-do about his proposal. Meanwhile, we Democrats have been working with the Illinois Retail Merchants Association that represents most of the businesses that are directly affected, and are working on putting together a plan that is sensible, that doesn’t revolve around penalty enhancements, but addresses the problem in a direct and honest way. I think you’ll see a significant proposal coming out of the Democratic caucuses in both the House and the Senate on that topic.

Mackey: Can you say more about what what that will look like if not increasing penalty enhancements, and how that will work?

Harmon: Part of it is trying to make sure we devote the resources to this to make sure that police departments have the personnel to tackle this particular problem. Part of it is trying to shut off the aftermarket. If people can’t sell these things they’ve stolen, easily, they will have much less of an incentive to steal them in the first place. And part of it is looking at how these organized crime rings are actually organized, and seeing if we can’t chip away at their ability to put these conspiracies into place.

Mackey: …There is this tension out there between, on criminal justice, you have progressive activists, who you know favor anything from sort of raising the dollar amount one can be convicted for on retail theft, to abolishing prison altogether. That’s on the one hand. And then on the other hand, you have people in economically distressed black communities that want more and better policing. How do you reconcile those competing demands on your side of the aisle?

Harmon: I think a good dose of common sense goes a long way. I don’t think there’s any reason to treat someone who steals baby formula and diapers the same way as someone who organizes a mass assault on a shopping mall, where 100 people simultaneously smash glass and steal goods. They’re both retail theft, but I think everyone can see the difference. And that’s why we’re trying to be smart on crime, and to draw those sorts of distinctions and actually hold people accountable for the gravity of what they do, not just merely checking the box of a particular crime or not.

* Mackey also asked Harmon about some poll questions I posted the other day about the state budget

Mackey: I’d kind of like to ask if you support or oppose some of these ideas. One would be for as you just mentioned, freezing property taxes statewide for the budget year.

Harmon: Freezing property taxes is something that’s been entertained before. Simple solutions to complicated problems are rarely simple or solutions. It’s maybe something that we could do for a year, but it’s not going to solve the problem. I think if we’re going to tackle property taxes, honestly, we have to do it more holistically. Again, the Fair Tax would have been the precursor, in my view to significant property tax reform. But we’re gonna have to go back to the drawing board based on the results of the referendum on that question.

Mackey: …There’s been a lot of attention on inflation. So this poll also asked about eliminating the scheduled increase to the gas tax, or maybe suspending the grocery tax for a year.

Harmon: We’ve looked at issues like that. The grocery tax actually is quite nominal. It’s only one and a quarter percent. And it all goes to local governments. The state long ago eliminated the state sales tax on groceries. So we could do it, but we wouldn’t provide a lot of relief for struggling families. The gas tax, we’ve been in the process of reconfiguring that to essentially devote all of the resources to improving our transportation system that has been neglected for decades. There’s a portion that still goes to the general revenue fund. I think we can look at that, but we don’t want to do something that is flashy showbiz but doesn’t provide real relief to people.

Mackey: What about the idea of direct cash payments? This was poll tested: $200 per child for every family earning less than $50,000 a year. And we’ve seen Andrew Yang proposing sort of, I mean, this goes to the universal basic income argument I guess. But, is there any appetite for that? Or is Illinois just maybe not in a fiscal position to even entertain something along those lines?

Harmon: I’m certainly in a position to entertain it. Republicans have done something like that in the past. It smacks of electoral politics, frankly. Now, that being said, the federal program that provided a child tax credit was enormously successful and popular, a nice confluence of policy and politics working out. But that’s not going to be extended. So, certainly, I think that’s something we would look at, if it’s something that Illinois could afford. But I come back to that basic principle, a responsible and durable state budget is the foundation on which all these other opportunities has to be built.

* Pandemic

Mackey: Republicans have been making the point for, it’s going on two years now, that the General Assembly ought to be more engaged in the policy response, particularly when it comes to things like the mask mandates, test or vaccinate rules, business closures. The governor has been handling most of that through the executive department. Has the General Assembly ceded too much authority to the governor in terms of the pandemic response?

Harmon: A prior General Assembly sometime ago had the foresight to pass a law that said in times of pestilence the governor has certain extraordinary authorities to deal with that issue. And the governor has used that, I think, responsibly and effectively. The General Assembly remains a check on excesses. And we have been partners with the governor in passing budgets the last two years to make sure we’re devoting resources to small businesses and to families struggling in the in the wake of the pandemic. It’s a partnership. It’s a check, it’s a balance. But I think the governor is following the law enacted by a prior General Assembly that had never heard of COVID.

Mackey: Why not make the mask rules more codified though, for example? You could be triggers based on, you know, certain case rates or something like that in state law?

Harmon: By design, the legislative process is a bit slow. And these sorts of responses need to be nimble. If we put in some sort of a mandate, it would be difficult to withdraw it without essentially ceding control to the governor to lift it, for instance. I’m not entirely sure what the difference is. We could pass a law giving the governor the same powers that he has to react in real time, but essentially, that’s the framework we already have.

* On that Quinnipac poll we covered here

Mackey: …There was a recent Quinnipiac University poll that asked a sample of Americans whether they think the nation’s democracy is in danger of collapse. ‘Yes’ was the answer from 56% of Democrats, 57% of independents and 62% of Republicans. I guess that’s a rare example of bipartisan agreement, although sort of a horrifying one. Do you think American democracy is in danger of collapse?

Harmon: I don’t, but I’m glad we’re all worried about it, if that makes sense. Our democracy is a very fragile thing. I have great faith in its resilience. The longer I serve in this role, the more faith I have in the system, which sounds counterintuitive, but it’s true. But it won’t be resilient if we’re all not mindful of those risks. Democracy exists only so long as we all believe in it and work for it. So it’s troubling that so many of us are concerned about it. But in the end, that might be what saves it.

There’s more, so click here for the whole thing.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 10:42 am

Comments

  1. Proving yet again that Don Harmon is the most thoughtful member in the General Assembly.

    Comment by phocion Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 10:49 am

  2. Perhaps Leader Durkin should focus on the more widespread, pervasive and actual problem of wage theft, and propose criminal penalties for employers who steal from their workers?

    Comment by Bart Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 10:52 am

  3. = executive department =

    Brian Mackey still has Madigan living in his head.

    Comment by cover Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 10:53 am

  4. “still has Madigan living in his head”

    For some it’s a disorder bordering on psychosis.

    Comment by Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 11:00 am

  5. A good interviewer, a good interviewee.

    Thoughtful questions, thoughtful answers.

    Comment by Moe Berg Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 11:05 am

  6. A good dose of common sense would involve actually locking up repeat violent offenders who clearly are impression right now that is not a remote possibility

    Comment by Lucky Pierre Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 11:22 am

  7. Harmon is right about the aftermarket. The boosters sell to pawn shops, flea market operators, etc. on a “no questions asked” basis. They in-turn either sell on eBay/Amazon/Facebook Marketplace/etc. or sell to yet another party who sells on those platforms.

    Comment by lake county democrat Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 11:40 am

  8. == A good dose of common sense would involve actually locking up repeat violent offenders who clearly are impression right now that is not a remote possibility ==

    A good dose of common sense would be for people who think this to stop watching “Law & Order” reruns and start looking at what it takes to get a jury conviction, and then understand why most things go to plea bargain.

    Hope you’ve got some deep pockets for all the increased local taxes, because if all these repeat violent offenders actually go to jury trials, it’s gonna be ’spensive.

    That is, unless you don’t believe in the rule of law, that everyone deserves due process, and even the most rough and tumble repeat violent offender is innocent until proven guilty…

    Comment by Leap Day William Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 11:40 am

  9. Durkin put him on the record as being against enhanced criminal penalties for organized retail theft - smart.

    Comment by Donnie Elgin Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 11:43 am

  10. Of course everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

    It is a recent phenomenon for repeat violent offenders and accused murderers to be on electronic monitoring

    https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2022/01/12/cook-county-sheriff-tom-dart-says-there-are-serious-flaws-in-system-with-murder-suspects-being-out-on-electronic-monitoring/?amp

    Comment by Lucky Pierre Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 11:54 am

  11. Harmon is a thoughtful guy, and his best answer was the answer to that last question on democracy.

    Comment by ;) Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 11:55 am

  12. ==A good dose of common sense would involve actually locking up repeat violent offenders who clearly are impression right now that is not a remote possibility ==

    Swear to god I can’t parse this sentence, but would penalty enhancements actually do anything? Just last week, you were saying that the policy response to rising crime should be “pro growth policies like in Texas and Florida”.

    Comment by Arsenal Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 12:32 pm

  13. Enlightening interview no doubt, Harmon is a wise man. That said freezing property taxes that are strangling families here in Lake county is the wrong approach. We need to replace Illinois’s property tax system with a land value tax that incentivizes improving one’s property and inhibits land speculation.

    Comment by Lake Villa Township Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 1:33 pm

  14. “I don’t think that penalty enhancements work. I think the real motivator is the swiftness and certainty that there will be some punishment.”

    I like that he said that, but the first sentence should be more definitive. Literally every study on the subject for decades has proven penalty enhancements don’t work. Period. They exist solely to satisfy lust for revenge, and let pols pat themselves on the back for “doing something”.

    Comment by Homebody Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 1:36 pm

  15. The beginning of the end. Two cars parked on the sidewalk to physically block the entrance to one of the luxury stores on Michigan Avenue. Security everywhere on Walton, Michigan, and Rush for retailers. Some stores resort to appointment only for entrance.

    Comment by Rudy’s teeth Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 1:58 pm

  16. Freezing property taxes requires raising tax revenue elsewhere or reducing service levels (read police - fire protection, garbage pick-up street repairs, etc.). A graduated income tax like the Fair Tax would allow local governments to reduce their levies over a few years. Unfortunately, Ken Griffin succeeded in muddying the waters so he won’t have to pay more while 97% of the rest of us shoulder the higher property taxes.

    Comment by froganon Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 2:36 pm

  17. === A good dose of common sense would involve actually locking up repeat violent offenders.===
    They have to get caught first. One way to catch them is when they try to convert the goods to cash. That is why it makes sense to look at the aftermarket.

    Comment by Da big bad wolf Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 3:06 pm

  18. “would allow local governments to reduce their levies over a few years”

    Well, one can be ever hopeful; I’m still waiting for pigs to fly.

    Comment by Donnie Elgin Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 3:07 pm

  19. ==A good dose of common sense would involve actually locking up repeat violent offenders who clearly are impression right now that is not a remote possibility==

    LOL, looks like the LP android needs a reboot.

    Comment by The Doc Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 3:23 pm

  20. I’m loving how the liberal pols are just now waking up to the anger of crime that has permeated in the public for the past two years. Welcome to the party. Better late, lame, and lazy than never I suppose.

    Comment by Just Me 2 Thursday, Jan 27, 22 @ 11:49 pm

  21. Right on, Senator Harmon

    Comment by Flexible One Friday, Jan 28, 22 @ 12:34 am

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