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* The governor blinked. Well, OK, just one eye has blinked so far…
More than a dozen state parks slated to close Nov. 1 will remain open through the end of that month, state officials announced Tuesday. […]
In addition, 11 state historic sites slated to close Oct. 1 will remain open until Oct. 15.
For the parks, the delay pushes the politically sensitive closings past the Nov. 4 elections. Petition drives and local meetings have brought out hundreds who object to the closings, which the governor ordered to balance the budget after lawmakers sent him a spending plan nearly $2 billion out of whack.
It also would mean the Illinois Senate would have the chance to restore funding for the parks and other cuts when it convenes the week after the elections. The Illinois House recently voted to tap special state bank accounts to come up with nearly $220 million to offset the cuts. But the Senate has said it won’t rush back to consider the move.
* But not everybody was happy…
But advocates putting up a strong fight against the closings see it as more political maneuvering.
“It begins to look like the governor’s beginning to play games and he’s just stringing us all along. It’s not funny,” said Jonathan Goldman, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council.
* And this is a very important point…
The announcement comes less than a week after the Illinois House voted overwhelmingly to put money back into the budget to keep the parks and sites open, along with restoring other cuts Blagojevich made to deal with a large budget hole.
Senate leaders have said they’re not coming back to Springfield until the November veto session — after the fall election. This announcement could ease some pressure on them to rethink that stance.
Anything that eases the pressure to return to Springfield is welcome news for those who want to continue playing games with the ethics bill override vote.
* Somewhat related…
* Lawmakers vote down closure of Pontiac prison
* Officials plan rally to support capital bill
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Sep 17, 08 @ 10:08 am
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Really messing with people.
Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Sep 17, 08 @ 10:13 am
==“It begins to look like the governor’s beginning to play games and he’s just stringing us all along. It’s not funny,”==
All of us get to a point where we are so frustrated and powerless, we feel like pawns instead of like human beings. When we accept ourselves as powerless pawns we search for an individual that is playing us.
When we believe that government should be put into charge of many aspects of our personal life, we lose our freedom to choose the direction our lives take. The trade-off is the belief that we could avoid personal adult responsibilities and that a faceless bureaucrat will make better decisions in our place. For generations we have had successful politicians telling us how they will fix mistakes we made or how they will make life more fair. And we have believed them for too long.
Consequentially, we set ourselves up as powerless pawns. We write laws that empower elected officials to hold sway over decisions best made by individuals. We end up depending on undependable institutions with the only recourse of complaining when their decisions harm us instead of help us.
We must recognize that government is not a default answer to our problems. We must recognize that eventually all governments fail. When we start discussing what we want in our new constitution next year, we have to remember to limit what government does, so that when it fails, we can continue to survive.
Comment by VanillaMan Wednesday, Sep 17, 08 @ 10:20 am
Did he blink or is that just something in his eye?
Comment by 2for2 Wednesday, Sep 17, 08 @ 10:34 am
As I’ve stated previously, of all this Governor’s misdeeds, playing games with these state parks and historical sights is the most egregious. It is simply mean spirited governing. Governor Blago is delusional and still thinks people might vote for him, which means he will never let these landmarks remain closed.
The first thing out of any rival candidate’s mouth will be, I’ll reopen Lincoln’s Log Cabin and Carl Sandburg’s home. That is about as easy as political points get.
What is so pathetic is that Blago is willing to upend so many communities while this charade plays out. As he victimizes people, I hope he realizes what goes around comes around and there will be a time when he will not be manipulating the system, the system will be manipulating him.
Comment by Phineas J. Whoopee Wednesday, Sep 17, 08 @ 11:01 am
As Mike Royko might have ssid “Winking and nodding”, as well as “blinking” are standard time-tested tactics of the rascals/con men who have run our city,county and state governments from time immemorial in Illinois.
Comment by Captain America Wednesday, Sep 17, 08 @ 11:49 am
Does he still have a blind eye to the human services organizations that he’s hurting? What can possibly be going on in the mind; “I’ll make the voters happy by restoring funding to the parks, but let them stew over the addicts, mentally ill and disadvantaged”. Guess what Rod, all of those folks vote as do their families, friends and the family and friends of the organizations closing.
Comment by eek Wednesday, Sep 17, 08 @ 1:13 pm
Since the dedicated fund sweep the House passed included money to keep the parks open and overturn some of the cuts made to Human Services, anyone know if the Human Services cuts will be delayed until Veto session? Some of the cuts take effect October 1st and this could mean the difference between keeping programs operating or not.
Comment by Anna Wednesday, Sep 17, 08 @ 1:47 pm
[AP exclusive, wandtv c17] That’s because his spokesman says the governor’s never visited them.
Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero says a lot of other people haven’t visited either because the decision to close places is based on attendance and not whether the governor likes them.”
Now Mr. Guerrero, put the visitation numbers behind your statement. And tell how the numbers were obtained. To imply citizens don’t use the sites should deserve number counts from DNR.
Comment by Princess Wednesday, Sep 17, 08 @ 2:49 pm