Does Rod Need to Pony Up?

Earlier this week, the Associated Press asserted that Governor Blagojevich may owe approximately $60,000 in taxes related to what amount to personal flights using the state plane:

The Associated Press reported this week that Blagojevich, his family and guests have taken hundreds of flights on taxpayer-financed airplanes with no clear business purpose. Tax experts said the Internal Revenue Service could consider the flights taxable fringe benefits.

The AP review estimated the value of the flights could add at least $225,000 to Blagojevich’s income and leave him with a tax bill of $60,000 or more.

And the Governor's reaction?

“That is the most ridiculous thing that’s ever been written,” Blagojevich told reporters at a Tuesday appearance in Mattoon.

Evidently the Governor doesn't do much reading. 

The Lieutenant Governor has some sage advice for the beleaguered Governor:

Blagojevich’s own lieutenant governor, Pat Quinn, said it would make sense for Blagojevich to seek an outside expert’s advice.

“The best way to go is for the governor to have a sophisticated tax lawyer take a look at the issue and answer any, any questions,” Quinn said Monday.

But isn't that exactly the problem with Governor Blagojevich?  He refuses to consult with or listen to anyone.

Snark Alert:  The Governor is missing out on a tremendous opportunity to begin addressing two issues that might help his administration.  First of all, he needs to consult with a tax professional and, in so doing, prove that he can seek and take advice that may be contrary to his own opinions.  Secondly, if he does in fact owe $60,000, he can further bolster his Democrat bone fides in his continuing yet one-sided battle with Speaker Madigan for the mantle of "most authentic Illinois Democrat" by paying all taxes owed to the federal government.

Time For An Anti-Dynasty Clause?

Conservative activist Grover Norquist recently proposed that an amendment be added to the Constitution to disallow family members from immediately succeeding each other in office:

“It will be ridiculous to have Mr President and Madam President in the White House,” he said. “We’re the United States of America. How can we say to President Mubarak [of Egypt], ‘You can’t hand off the presidency to your son, it’s got to be your wife’ or, ‘Hey Syria and North Korea, you’ve got to knock this stuff off and be like us’.”

Norquist has commissioned lawyers to draw up a constitutional amendment that would ban family members from succeeding one another to elected and appointed office. If passed, it would not apply to the Clintons as a Bush was elected in between them. But Norquist believes that it will alert voters to the perils of dynasty. “Americans don’t like to go back,” he said.

This got me thinking.  Why not adopt a similar provision to the Illinois Constitution, except expand it to include not only the Governor's Office, but seats in the General Assembly as well?  The practice of handing a retiring or deceased state legislators seat to their offspring or spouse has long-irked me.  It has happened several time over the last few years alone.  Just some examples:  Senator Denny Jacobs retired and installed his son Mike.   Senator Vince Demuzio passed away and the local party apparatus appointed his wife.  Representative Frank Mautino was appointed to his seat upon the death of his father.   Representative JoAnn Osmond was appointed upon the death of her husband.  I'm sure there have been others going back further in time for both parties.

I fully support the proposition that, although family dynasties cannot be ended as long as people are allowed to vote their conscious in free and fair elections , they can at least be more difficult to begin.

Previous Post:  More Nepotism in Illinois Politics? 

Another Scandal?

The Chicago Tribune reports that, possibly as a result of pressure from the paper, the Illinois State Police are re-opening an investigation into claims that a state regulator solicited a campaign contribution to the Governor in exchange for possible protection against a Medicaid fraud probe:

A Chicago pharmacist first told state police in 2005 that he made a $25,000 contribution to Blagojevich as a form of protection from a state Medicaid probe.

The Illinois State Police told the Tribune last month they had already investigated those allegations and determined they were unfounded.

But after repeated inquiries from the Tribune about the thoroughness of that investigation, state police said last week they were taking another look.

The agency formally denied the newspaper's request for documents in the case on the grounds it would "obstruct an ongoing criminal investigation."

"Certainly, that case has been reopened and it is being actively investigated," Lt. Scott Compton, the agency's chief spokesman, said Friday. "That's all I can say at this time."

Compton, the state police spokesman, confirmed that Patel told an investigator he felt pressure from Bhatt to contribute to the governor and Bhatt offered to intervene with state regulators on his behalf in exchange for the money. Compton also confirmed Patel said he immediately felt pangs of regret for writing a $25,000 check to Friends of Blagojevich and ordered his bank to stop payment.

According to state disclosure forms, the Blagojevich campaign reported Patel's donation on June 27, 2005 and then reported on July 8, 2005 that the check didn't clear.

"We were told by Patel there were other instances where Bhatt solicited payments and that he had documents to corroborate those payments," Compton said last month. "Mr. Patel failed to provide those documents after numerous attempts by the state police."

This decision on the part of the state police to revisit the case breathes a whole new dimension into the story.  It's no longer just about whether the Governor's Office is willing to help big donors skirt the law in exchange for campaign cash.  Now the integrity of the state's top law enforcement agency may be called into question.  It should raise eyebrows that the state police investigation didn't even include an interview with key parties involved with the accusation:

The state police likewise dismissed as unfounded the allegations of improper political influence in Bhatt's own case after what the agency described as a thorough investigation. Both Bhatt and the pharmacy regulator said they were never interviewed by state police about interference allegations. Both deny any wrongdoing.

Doesn't sound like the state police engaged in much of an investigation.  The Trib isn't done trying to get to the bottom of things:

The Tribune has appealed the denial of its records requests to state officials.

Here's the Tribune's initial report that appeared on October 16. 

My Quibble With Rich Miller

I have to take issue with Rich Miller's latest column.  First let me say that Rich Miller provides a tremendous service to those of us who like to follow Illinois politics.  He's one of the hardest working guys over at the statehouse and does a fabulous job of unearthing and conveying all kinds of information of value to political junkies.  Most of what I learn about what's going on in Springfield I learn from his reporting and website.  He's also a pretty nice guy.

Why all the qualifications?  Well, I'm going to offer a bit of a criticism, but want to be clear about how I view Rich and what he does lest my critique be wrongly interpreted as some kind of personal attack.  Far from it.  This is strictly on the merits.

I have for years believed that Rich tends to have a sympathetic bent toward the Democratic Party.  There's nothing wrong with that, as I don't consider him as vying to be an "objective journalist" in the same respect I would expect an employee of a major newspaper to be.  He's really carved out his own niche as, more or less, an avant-gard information maven.  When you think about it, he's been "blogging" with his Capitol Fax before blogging was even a part of our lexicon.  Pretty smart guy!

Will you get around to it already!  Alright, while it's no big deal to have sympathies one way or another that may from time to time come out in your coverage, such sympathies can color your perceptions of what is actually happening or might happen.

That's where my critique of Rich's latest article begins.  As I understand his column, Rich is essentially arguing that most Illinois voters are so upset with the Governor and the dysfunction in Springfield that they are just itching to take it out on somebody.  I agree with this general point.  He then states the following:

There will be an opportunity for Illinoisans to vent their rage next year without voting for a Republican, however. And, no, I'm not talking about the Green Party candidates.

The build-up to this sentiment is how voters have Bush fatigue and are angry with the President and, by extension, the national and state Republican Party.  Look, nobody is contesting that the Republican Party in Illinois has had, putting it rather kindly, a very bad run of luck in recent years.  Many of the problems are self-induced and many result from significant shifts in voter demographics.  I do believe it to be a bit of hyperbole to contend that dissatisfied Democrats and Independent voters in Illinois definitely wouldn't vote for Republican candidates in 2008.  That may be the case for hard-core ideologues, or perhaps those who inhabit the circle of folks Rich runs with, but isn't necessarily applicable to "soft-Democrats" and self-styled Independents.  These voters, joined by "soft-Republicans" are almost always up for grabs and candidates spend millions of dollars trying to woo them into their camps.

Back to Rich's argument.  He implies that, since there's just no way non-GOP voters can vote for Republican candidates because they're so mad at President Bush and his "brand" (despite the fact that a new nominee will be the face of the Republican Party on election day), Illinois voters will direct their anger at the Governor and statehouse dysfunction through the only possible recourse available.  What is that?  How about something as esoteric to average voters as a constitutional convention.   Maybe he's right, but I'm skeptical.  Discussing the pros and cons of a constitutional convention is an insiders game, and most voters simply aren't insiders. 

Rich didn't mention another possibility voters have to register their anger at their own party.  Short of voting en masse for the other party -- sometimes they stay home.  Many elections are won and lost based upon which side showed-up at the polls and which side threw up their hands and remained at home in disgust.  This is a very real possibility.   

Rich also didn't discuss the myriad of other factors that will be at play.  President Bush may not be registering very high in the polls, but there's a Democratic Congress in Washington with an even lower approval rating.  The Democratic base isn't exactly thrilled with the Nancy Pelosi-Harry Reid Congress.  There's also a chance that the Democratic Party could nominate the very polarizing Hillary Clinton for President -- a development some view as a potential drag on the Party nationally.  Finally, and although it may be anathema for Democrats to want to admit it, the situation on the ground in Iraq has markedly improved from where it was just one year ago.  Don't believe it?  Ask yourself why Iraq has curiously vanished from the headlines over the past few months.  One more thing to consider.  What if Republican candidates for the state legislature run television ads where their opponents morph into Governor Blagojevich?

Factoring in these scenarios, what Rich has essentially concluded is that despite an historically unpopular Democratic Congress, a Governor with a frighteningly low approval-rating, a state legislature completely controlled by Democrats that is enveloped in the dysfuntion, a possible Democratic presidential nominee who polarizes the electorate and a possible Republican presidential candidate who will be a "fresh face," that non-GOP Illinois voters will most certainly not vote against Democrats on their ballots and probably wouldn't stay home.  That may be what Rich wants to believe will happen, ergo the previously mentioned bias, but it simply strains credulity.

I'll also offer a possibility that may actually embolden Democrats to look past the problems in Springfield.  There's a slim but very real chance that favorite son Barack Obama could overtake Hillary for the nomination if, as with Howard Dean, voters decide she is unelectable.  If Obama is heading the ticket next year, there could be a strong and enthusiastic showing for Democrats. 

One more point about a blue state like Illinois electing Republicans.  Louisiana, another blue state with a Democratic-majority and tradition that richly exceeds more recent trends in Illinois, just elected a Republican governor as voters exercised their outrage at a corrupt and dysfunctional political class that did them no favors following Hurricane Katrina.  I'll even bet at least a few Democrats voted for the new guy. 

November 8, 2007

The papers continue to percolate with stories about the legacy of former Governor George Ryan one day after his incarceration for his crimes against the people of Illinois.

The Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn believes that former Governor Jim Thompson's efforts on behalf of Ryan have tarnished the legacy of the four-term governor:

Yes, Thompson was one of Ryan's lawyers, and lawyers should act and speak forcefully on behalf of their clients. There's no shame in that.

And yes, Thompson is a friend and former close professional and political associate of Ryan's, and friends should provide support in times of trouble and need. There's no shame in that, either.

But Thompson is not an ordinary lawyer, nor is he an ordinary friend.

He's an elder statesman. The dignity and respect of the office of governor of Illinois are both his burden and his advantage in life, no matter what positions he goes on to hold.

Thompson owed it to the office he once held to keep the sort of serene distance from Ryan's troubles that has been kept by ex-Gov. Jim Edgar, the fellow Republican who served in the eight years between Thompson and Ryan.

And Thompson owed it to his record as a corruption-buster -- a record that launched his wildly successful political career that, in turn, launched his wildly lucrative legal career -- not to come out so publicly for a politician accused and then convicted of just the sort of official misdeeds he once crusaded against.

"Jim Thompson is a gigantic figure in state history," said Jay Stewart, executive director of the Better Government Association. "But this full-throated defense of George Ryan and his crimes is tattering his reputation around the edges."

Zorn has a point in that Thompson, like Ryan, was certainly not a change-agent in Illinois politics.  Like Ryan, he was a prolific deal-maker all to willing to play in the swampy morass of Illinois politics without demanding that the cesspool be cleaned out. 

The Daily Southtown expresses a cynical but accurate view of Illinois politics: 

We say: Given Illinois' sorry political history, we have little optimism that Ryan will be the last politician to walk through prison gates.

Ryan still maintains his innocence.

"I got screwed," he told a recent visitor to his home.

He's got it all wrong. It was he who screwed the people of Illinois, the people who entrusted him to be their secretary of state and later their governor. Rather than serve in those posts honorably, Ryan allowed corruption to run rampant with him as a willing participant. Documents and witnesses made that abundantly clear at his trial. And some of the state's top legal minds, who were working for free, couldn't pull enough legal tricks out of their hat to convince the government to cancel Ryan's reservation in Oxford.

As much as we'd like to believe that, and as much as we'd like to hope that Ryan is the last Illinois politician who will end up in prison, we can't be too optimistic given the current climate. We unfortunately don't think all politicians are ready to abandon those good ol' days.

Prosecutors, it appears, are equally suspicious. Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration has caught the eye of investigators, though the governor himself has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Fact is, Illinois has a long way to go before becoming a poster boy for good government.

A political ethics bill has been collecting dust in Springfield for months. The House unanimously approved it, but the Senate president refuses to call a vote on it. The governor isn't pressuring him to do so. Their excuse is that the bill isn't strong enough.

Their concern would overwhelm us if it weren't for things like the $70,000 pay raise the Senate president's wife got for her state job or the real estate commission the governor's wife received for handling the sale of the home of a man who later received $10 million in no-bid state business.

We'd like to think Ryan's entry into prison closes the book on bad government in Illinois. The cynic in us believes it's merely the transition from one sorry chapter to the next. This state is far too corrupt, and until voters demand more from their leaders - and stop accepting political corruption as a way of life - there are bound to be more George Ryans in the future - maintaining their innocence as the bars slam behind them.

Despite all the focus on Ryan's incarceration and the misdeeds that brought it about, the Illinois culture of corruption appears as strong as ever:

The Ryan case and other investigations - some still continuing - have spurred calls for reforms in Illinois.

Yet Illinois Senate President Emil Jones still refuses to call for a vote two major reform measures, House Bills 1 and 3, which overwhelmingly passed in the House and are co-sponsored by a vast majority of the Senate.

Jones said earlier that the reform measures - dealing with restrictions on campaign donations by state contractors, among other things - are not strong enough. But he hasn't offered any alternatives or even suggested how they could be made stronger.

Some may shrug that off as "politics as usual" in Illinois.

But Illinoisans are tired of "politics as usual," tired of seeing their governors violating the law and tired of the monetary waste and bad government resulting from "politics as usual."

Let the sound of the cell door slamming shut on the former governor wake up present-day politicians to the need to strengthen ethics rules and follow them, both in spirit and by the letter of the law.

If there is nothing to hide, then there should be no fear of reform.

Illinois has a rich history, as well as a more contemporaneous experience, with corrupt and arrogant politicians.  Irresponsible backroom deal-making, nepotism, graft, egotism, race-baiting and feather-bedding are part and parcel of political life in Illinois.  Someday, someway, it is my fondest hope and aspiration that these kings and courtiers of corruption will be shown the door.  Louisiana just elected a reformer as governor.  Hopefully Illinois isn't far behind. 

November 7, 2007

George Ryan's Day of Reckoning Arrives

From a commentary published by the Chicago Sun-Times on the day former Governor George Ryan reports to federal prison in Wisconsin:

If you're tempted to feel sorry for this 73-year-old grandfatherly figure, save it. Remember the evidence the jury had before it. Remember the fat wads of cash he always carried, even though he withdrew just $6,700 from his bank over a decade. Remember the contracts he steered to his friends. Remember the vacations and gifts he accepted from them. Remember the state workers who were pressured to raise money for him and work on his campaigns.

Finally, remember the license-for-bribes scandal, which, more than anything, tarnished Ryan's long record of public service. Remember that one of the drivers who paid a bribe to get a license from Ryan's secretary of state's office was involved in the fiery crash that killed six children of Scott and Janet Willis. And remember how Ryan and his also-convicted pals shamefully thwarted an investigation into that crash and its connection to the license scandal.

But Ryan has never admitted his guilt, and he has offered only a half-hearted apology for letting the state down. He finds fault with his jury's tumultuous deliberations, not his own actions. His day of reckoning is here, and he has no one to blame but himself.

From the Chicago Tribune:

But Ryan has never admitted his guilt, and he has offered only a half-hearted apology for letting the state down. He finds fault with his jury's tumultuous deliberations, not his own actions. His day of reckoning is here, and he has no one to blame but himself.

He was lying. By the time he gave that speech, Ryan had committed multiple crimes against the citizens who had given him their trust. He had mocked state government's mission to protect Illinoisans. Ryan's underlings accepted bribes for between 1,000 and 2,000 trucker's licenses -- and some of that blood money made its way to his campaign coffers. At least nine innocents died in crashes blamed on fraudulent Illinois truckers.

There was so much more betrayal from Ryan -- just as self-serving if not as lethal. He gave his cronies such free rein over state business that they collectively pocketed $4.77 million in sweetheart deals. He steered improper gifts and favors to members of his family, allowing his corruption to wash over them as well.

In short, Ryan diabolically put the enrichment of himself and everyone around him ahead of state government's crucial responsibilities. U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald put it crisply when he issued Ryan's indictment four years ago: When Ryan was in office, "the State of Illinois was for sale."

The Trib takes a look forward with this sentence:

That oft-quoted sentence gave birth to Illinois' unofficial state motto: "Who's next?"

From the State Journal-Register:

At best, Ryan’s entry into prison can let us derive satisfaction that the system prevailed; that even corruption as entrenched as the kind practiced by Ryan’s political circle ultimately can be uncovered and prosecuted.

But even that sense of satisfaction is greatly muted by one fact: Ryan has never admitted to any wrongdoing. He reports to prison today believing he is an innocent man, a dedicated public servant who was loyal to his friends and ultimately was done in by their misdeeds — of which he claims ignorance — and by overzealous prosecution.

“I believe this decision today is not in accordance with the kind of public service that I’ve provided to the people of Illinois over 40 years,” Ryan said on April 17, 2006, after the federal jury convicted him. “Needless to say, I am disappointed in the outcome, but I feel confident in our appeal, and there will be an appeal.”

Many people in this town benefited from Ryan’s political career, which he built on a foundation of deal-making and favor-swapping. His defenders here are many, and they — like Ryan himself — still view him as a victim of his loyalty, and an unfair victim at that. To these people, Ryan was merely working the system as it had long been worked.

The warning signs of Ryan’s political machine running amok were there for years. When Pat Quinn ran unsuccessfully against Ryan for secretary of state in 1994, he made it an issue.

“George Ryan has behaved like the sheriff of Nottingham, standing by while his army of inspectors squeezes more and more campaign money out of honest businesses,” Quinn said in December 1993.

Some 11 months later, on the very day Ryan beat Quinn, a part fell off a truck on a highway near Milwaukee, striking a minivan that burst into flames, killing six children. The driver of the truck, Ricardo Guzman, was driving on a license issued from the Melrose Park license facility that had become a clearinghouse for licenses issued in exchange for contributions to the Ryan campaign. Nearly five years later, an official with Guzman’s trucking company admitted he had paid a bribe to fix Guzman’s license test score.

Ryan has consistently affected an air of detachment when speaking of this case. It’s a tragedy, he has said. Likewise did he respond to so many other charges in his lengthy trial. Other people did things they shouldn’t have. Maybe I should have been more diligent. How was I to know? Look at all the good I have done.

Maybe the reality will set in starting today, when the gates close behind him in Oxford. We doubt it.

November 6, 2007

A recent poll of 600 registered voters in Illinois by the Glengariff Group found that a majority of Illinoisans would vote to recall Governor Blagojevich.  In the poll, 51.9% of registered voters would recall the Governor if the capability existed.  The poll also found that 65% of Illinoisans now favor adding a recall provision to the Illinois Constitution.

It would be interesting to see what the poll result would have been if it had canvassed likely voters -- always a better demographic for polling purposes.  Still, the results of the poll clearly indicate that the Governor's act has worn thin in the eyes of a seemingly aware Illinois citizenry. 

I'll provide a link to the poll if and when it becomes available.

HT: Capitol Fax 

Northern Illinois University: Police and Fire Pension Funds In Trouble

The Center for Governmental Studies at Northern Illinois University has published a policy analysis finding that the pension funds servicing Illinois police and firefighters outside of Chicago are in poor fiscal health.  Not only are many of these funds carrying significant amounts of debt, but the debt they carry  leaves them worse-off than the much more publicized problems facing the State Employees Retirement System (SERS) and the Teachers Retirement System (TRS).

Readers of my blog are probably aware that I fervently believe that one of the worst, if not the worst, public policy problem facing Illinois is the growing pension debt within the public pension systems.  Not just the 5 state-funded systems, but defined benefit pension plans that provide retirement benefits to public employees at various levels of government.  Organizations like the Civic Federation do a tremendous job analyzing not only the poorly-funded state systems, but the multitude of defined benefit pension funds set up for employees who live and work in various government capacities throughout Chicagoland.

Why is the growing pension debt so important?  Because as the pension debt gets larger and larger in these funds, the state and other units of government will have to dedicate more and more revenue toward debt service instead of vital public needs like capital infrastructure, education, public safety, public health and parks and recreation.  In other words, the state and any other affected levels of government will be saddled with a structural deficit.  Imagine a monthly credit card payment.  If the card user occasionally spends a little more than he or she should have, the credit card payment is probably manageable.  If the person is a wild spender and only makes the minimum payment, the debt begins to spiral upward to the point where the minimum payment keeps getting larger and larger.  It can quickly go from 5% of an individual's income to 10% to 15% to 20% and so on.  This obviously leaves less money each month for other necessities.

Here's where the analogy breaks down for these police and fire pension funds.  According to the analysis, the Illinois General Assembly has on several occasions increased the retirement benefits for police officers and firefighters.  And get this...the state legislature that increases these benefits for municipal police and firefighters puts absolutely no money into the funds to keep them solvent.  Nope.  They leave that to the taxpayers of each municipality that has these funds. 

Back to the credit card analogy.  Now imagine that someone had a credit card debt they were earnestly trying to pay down.  Their credit card bill arrives in the mail and, to their shock and dismay, hundreds of dollars in new purchases they didn't make are on the card and they can't get the credit card company to remove them.  That's essentially what's happening with these local police and fire pension funds.  

So what's going on?  A poorly-designed system leaves these funds at the mercy of politics and election cycles.  Hundreds of cities throughout Illinois have police and fire pension funds.  Local taxpayers pay property taxes into these funds.  State legislators receive political contributions and campaign assistance from police and fire unions.  Once elected, these legislators repay the police and fire unions by sweetening their pensions without using any state money.  Each pension increase creates expanded debt overnight for which no money had been set aside.  Why is this debt created so suddenly?  Because the pension increases aren't restricted to new hires, but apply to anyone in the system.  Someone close to maxing out on their pension and retiring gets an upgrade for all previous years of service even though the upgrade hadn't been funded for all those previous years.  Individual cities have no say in this matter, but find themselves having to levy more and more property taxes for the funds.  And local taxpayers, well, they get stuck with the tab and will be on the hook for these funds if they go belly-up.

The state legislature and various Illinois governors are largely responsible for the funding crisis afflicting the 5-state funded pension plans.  It looks like they can add the municipal police and firefighter pension funds to this glowing resume.

November 4, 2007

Bowing to rising anger among Chicago residents, Mayor Daley is scaling back his tax increase proposal:

Daley said he would slice his property tax request from $108 million to $83 million, meaning the cost to homeowners would be a little less steep than it would have been under the mayor's original plan.

Daley had pushed the bottled water fee as an environmental initiative to help defray the costs of non-biodegradable plastic containers clogging landfills. But instead of a dime on each bottle, Daley said he will seek to charge 5 cents.

November 3, 2007

Another Scandal?

The Chicago Tribune is conducting an investigation into a real estate deal involving the wife of Governor Blagojevich and a businessman who has received approximately $10 million in no-bid contracts from the State.  

Patti Blagojevich reportedly received a commission estimated at somewhere between $26,000 and $39,000 on the sale of a condo that sold for $650,000.  Here's a little something about the condo's seller:

The seller was Mark T. Wight, owner of Wight & Company, an architecture firm that won three new contracts with the state's toll highway authority after the 2005 sale. The buyer was John R. Wyma, Wight's tollway lobbyist and a longtime Blagojevich insider.

Even the buyer, John Wyma, has strong Blagojevich connections:

Wyma and Blagojevich have shared a close personal and professional relationship for more than a decade. Wyma became the first chief of staff for Blagojevich after he was elected a Northwest Side congressman in 1996 and soon became one of Blagojevich's closest political advisers.

The two remained close even after Wyma left in 2000. About a year later he returned as political director for Blagojevich's 2002 campaign for governor. After the victory, Wyma registered as a state lobbyist while remaining a member of Blagojevich's "kitchen cabinet" of advisers and one of the biggest fundraisers for the governor's campaign fund.

Wyma has repeatedly turned up as the lobbyist for groups that would benefit from some of the governor's most high-profile proposals, from new gambling to expanded health care.

One might conclude that this was a transaction put together as a result of Mrs. Blagojevich tapping into her personal social network and matching a buyer and seller.  That would be a customary business practice on its own, but it's not exactly what happened.  What really raises eyebrows is that Mrs. Blagojevich was not involved in the transaction but received a commission anyway:

Real estate records show the Wicker Park condominium was never officially listed for sale on the Multiple Listing Service, a nationwide market listing commonly used by agents.

Patricia Blagojevich had been house-hunting for Wyma for months. But Wyma and Wight found each other without Blagojevich's help. Still, Wight said, he decided to pay her the commission anyway.

My, how generous of him!

Then there's an issue of timing:

The deal closed Jan. 7, 2005.

The day before the closing, the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority approved a no-bid, $2 million contract with Wight & Company for various tollway design services. That contract was later increased to $2.5 million.

This isn't the first suspicious business dealing involving state contractors and Patti Blagojevich:

It is the third time the Tribune has disclosed similar commissions earned by the first lady and her home-based real estate business, revealing a steady income to the Blagojevich household from key political supporters, fundraisers and state contractors.

Patricia Blagojevich's real estate deals with power brokers close to her husband first came under scrutiny in 2005 when the Tribune disclosed her eight-year business relationship with Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a Chicago developer who became one of the governor's top fundraisers and a member of his kitchen cabinet.

Rezko was indicted last year on unrelated federal charges of soliciting kickbacks from firms seeking state business.

She also earned more than $113,000 in real estate commissions in 2006 through Anita Mahajan, owner of a now-defunct drug testing company, who has been indicted on charges she defrauded state taxpayers of more than $2 million.

Mahajan's husband, Amrish, is a Chicago-area banker who has helped raise more than $500,000 for Blagojevich's campaign fund.

Of course the lackeys at the Illinois State Tollway Authority are shilling for the Governor:

Tollway spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis said Wight has been a tollway contractor going back 15 years and said the latest contracts had nothing to do with the real estate deal. Rather, she said, the company got more work because of its good reputation and because the tollway was embarking on a major expansion.

Wight has seems to be doing pretty well under this Governor:

Wight also has received about $2.5 million in contracts from agencies that report directly to the governor since Blagojevich took office. His firm has donated nearly $100,000 to Blagojevich's campaign since 2002.

It wasn't too long ago that Governor Blagojevich had pledged to end "pay to play" and "rock the system" with ethics reforms.  There has barely been a tremor, and Illinois voters are still waiting. 

November 2, 2007

Is the Governor Just Playing More Games on Transit?

Rich Miller over at the Capitol Fax Blog is reporting that the RTA has filled out all the necessary paperwork to receive the full $91 million dollars pledged by the Governor for a temporary bailout of the transit system.  Despite having done everything necessary on its end, the RTA/CTA has only been given $37 million dollars of the promised money.  At the same time, with the Sunday deadline looming for the beginning of a "transit doomsday" that would result in the suspension of certain routes and the institution of fare hikes, the Governor has come forward with another offer for a temporary bailout. 

Here are the big questions.  Is the Governor holding back the $54 million already pledged but not delivered so that he can fool average people that he is coming up with "new" money and once again "coming to the rescue" of transit riders?  Could the Governor be hoping that voters will be convinced that he is the only one doing anything to help avert a partial transit shutdown while the General Assembly bickers over solutions?  Remember that the Governor has already said that he would oppose a regional sales tax increase to fund transit, apparently taking the issue off the table.  I can't help but think that holding back some of the money already pledged is a scheme to make it appear that he has twice come to the rescue of the RTA and is the "good guy" despite the fact that he hasn't offered any constructive proposals and in fact has already torpedoed one viable solution. 

Now that downstate Senate Democrats have declared they won't support a transit bailout for northern Illinois unless a capitol spending bill passes first, and considering that a capitol spending bill may very well hinge on the controversial issue of gambling expansion, I'm not optimistic anything will get done in the next few days.  Those are a lot of very big dominos that need to fall in order.

Update:  Alright, the $27 million dollars provided by the Governor is actually federal money earmarked for capitol expenditures.  The problem is that this money typically cannot be used for operating expenses associated with the RTA/CTA.  The feds had to approve the use of this money, which they did.  According to Speaker Madigan, the money is referred to as "Series B" bond money.  This money will offset the use of federal capital money for operating purposes.  Apparently this has been done before in Illinois.

I'm still trying to determine what happened with the $54 million that the RTA/CTA was pledged but has apparently not yet received?  Why is the "Series B" bond money needed if a majority of the original $91 million bailout hasn't been disbursed.   There must be some official piece of the puzzle I'm missing.

Bottom line -- the Sunday " transit doomsday" has been staved off once again.  There still needs to be a comprehensive, permanent solution.  Senate Republicans seem to be on record that any solution must include fair hikes:

And there are indications that no matter what solution is reached, or when it is reached, fare increases could be a part of the package.
   
Senate Republican leader Frank Watson (R-Greenville) wrote RTA Chairman Jim Reilly this week that "a modest and reasonable fare increase for riders who benefit must be part of the solution."
   
In his reply, Reilly wrote Watson, "Certainly if the Governor and four leaders agree on that approach we would most definitely implement it."
   
How much, or when, the fare hike would occur is unclear.

Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Judy Barr Topinka couldn't resist taking a shot at the man who defeated her:

“To give him and the leaders yet another extension is just to give them more time to waste. I can’t believe that he has allowed the issue to come to this when there was plenty of time to straighten it out early on. To make people dependent upon public transportation ride this roller coaster of they have a bus, they don’t have a bus, is really insensitive and sad as it leaves nothing but anxiety and fear out there. He didn’t have a transportation component in his campaign, he has no plan now.”

She'd be right.  I said it was a shot, I didn't say it was unfair! 

This Pot Will Boil Over

The public anger and frustration toward Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich continues to build to a point of critical mass, but a critical mass without a direct outlet.  Perhaps this is what prompted the Chicago Tribune to publish a piece asking for reader input regarding the institution of a recall provision within the Illinois Constitution.  Yes, it's gotten that bad:

That is, should Illinois join the 18 states that give voters -- as opposed to lawmakers -- the ballot power to remove state officials from office?

The Blagojevich experience suggests that the answer is yes, Illinois should write a recall mechanism into its constitution. Having endured the Blagojevich era, we believe voters never should have to endure another one like it. They instead should have the power to recall an inept governor.

and

The bill of particulars against Rod Blagojevich is numbingly familiar. His is a legacy of federal and state investigations of alleged cronyism and corruption in the steering of pension fund investments to political donors, in the subversion of state hiring laws, in the awarding of state contracts, in matters as personal as that mysterious $1,500 check made out to the governor's then-7-year-old daughter by a friend whose wife had been awarded a state job.

Presented this year with an extraordinary opportunity -- his Democratic Party controlling both houses of the Illinois General Assembly -- Blagojevich has squandered what should have been a leadership moment: He is governor of a state in desperate need of more accountability in its public schools, of a new tax formula for funding those schools, of a meaningful attack on its swelling pension indebtedness. Today Illinois has ... solutions to none of the above.

Instead, taxpayers are bankrolling an endless game of chicken between legislative leaders and a governor known to boast about his self-diagnosed "testicular virility." Blagojevich has clumsily tried to recast himself as a prairie populist, bashing his state's employers. He has borrowed from the future to cover costs of state government today. And in a fiasco that may have its own constitutional implications, he has redirected millions of taxpayers' dollars to personal priorities that he can't convince lawmakers to support.

Blagojevich is an intentionally divisive governor and a profoundly unhelpful influence. He is unwilling or unable to see the chaos all around him. This year, lawmakers failed to make progress on schools, on state pension reform, on any number of critical matters. Mass transit in the Chicago region is about to implode, largely because of the state government's failure.

Yet Blagojevich said 10 days ago that "If you measure success on whether or not you are doing things for people, this is the most successful session in years."

Do you see that success? Do you see Blagojevich forging compromises and solving problems? Or do you see the same distracted governor who, after House members crushed his 2007 tax scheme by a vote of 107-0, said: "Today, I think, was basically an up. ... I feel good about it."

He is the governor who cannot govern.

finally

As awareness builds that the governor's obstructionism has kept Illinois from meaningful action on education reform, school funding, government ethics, public pension indebtedness and other challenges, more voters may warm to the notion of firing their inept governor.

This page and many other voices repeatedly have proposed far-reaching solutions for each of those challenges. But our experience with the current governor suggests that those solutions can't flourish while he remains in place.

Illinois citizens have little for which they can thank Rod Blagojevich. They can, though, thank him for demonstrating why this state's legislature and voters should add a recall provision to the Illinois Constitution. And use it.

A recall provision wouldn't arrive in time to address the problem of the Governor's intransigence.  Current members of the Illinois General Assembly, particularly Democrats, had better hope that voters denied the release of punishing the Governor don't instead take out their vengeance on his party.  Frustration levels could also be rising to the point where anyone presently holding a public office could feel voter wrath regardless of party. 

Anecdotal evidence exists that candidates are having somewhat of a difficult time rounding up the required number of signatures to get on the ballot.  I don't have a link to an internet version of the story, but here's a snippet from Rich Miller's Capitol Fax from Tuesday:

Still, there are reports of trouble out there in petition-gathering land.  The never-ending Statehouse bloodfest combined with the early petition deadline this fall has made the process much more difficult.  Voters are grumpy and precinct workers simply aren't motivated. 

Not that they won't make it, but it appears to be like pulling teeth to get adequate signatures.  This could be a sign of voters losing patience with the political process and deciding "a pox on both your houses."  Time will tell. 

Rich Miller on the uniform unhappiness with the Governor. 

The Governor isn't even playing well in Cook County. 

In a solid blue state like Illinois, the Democratic governor finds himself about as popular among voters as George W. Bush:

Only 29 percent of voters in overwhelmingly Democratic Cook County said they approved of Blagojevich's job performance, according to the Wesleyan poll. By contrast, 67 percent of Cook voters gave the thumbs up to U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and 67 percent said they will vote for a Democrat for U.S. Congress. The governor's doing better with county voters than President Bush, but statewide the two are locked in a dead heat.

and he's approaching polling territory occupied by indicted and jail-bound former Governor George Ryan as he left office:

It's to the point where Blagojevich probably wishes he could move "up" to Richard Nixon's ratings. And he's very close to George Ryan's job approval ratings as the soon-to-be prison inmate was leaving office under a cloud of federal investigations.

Yep.  Something's got to give.  Angry voters don't just go gently into the night.  They take their angst out somewhere. 

October 28, 2007

The Daily Herald on what former Governor George Ryan may expect when he reports to prison on November 7.  The Ryan legal team still intends to seek a hearing before the United States Supreme Court.

More bad news facing Metra riders:

Metra riders can expect fares to increase up to 30 percent over the next three years and trains to be slower, dirtier and more crowded if the commuter rail service has to balance its budget without additional state funding, officials warned Thursday.

Sunday Metra service might also be cut, meaning 43,300 people on a typical Sunday would no longer be able to take the train downtown to visit the Art Institute, shop on Michigan Avenue or see the Bears play.

Metra's staff laid out the fare hikes and service cut options for Metra's board of directors, who must grapple with a projected $40 million deficit in 2008. The actions, due to start in February, could be averted if the General Assembly breaks its long-running deadlock and comes up with a new mass transit funding plan for Metra, the CTA and Pace.

At least Metra is just as aware of the dysfunction in Springfield as everyone else:

But Metra officials expressed little optimism that leaders in Springfield would reach agreement anytime soon after months of squabbling.

The opening of a Planned Parenthood facility in Aurora continues to stir controversy among pro-life activists. 

The State Journal-Register on Chicago's self-proclaimed financial neediness. 

Life in America's third-largest city is about to get even more expensive if Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and other politicians get their way.

Daley is pushing a laundry list of new taxes and fee increases to pay for a $5.4 billion city budget that includes slapping a 10-cent levy on every bottle of water, boosting property taxes, and charging people who drive big vehicles like SUVs $120 instead of $90 for an annual city sticker.

"To keep our city's progress going, I decided - reluctantly - that as our last resort we must ask taxpayers for more," Daley said when he presented his budget earlier this month.

On top of that, the county that includes Chicago is flirting with a sales tax increase that would push the rate in the city to 11 percent - among the highest in the country. The current 9 percent rate in Chicago already tops other big cities, including New York at 8.375 percent and Los Angeles at 8.25 percent.

And some state lawmakers want an extra regional sales tax increase in the city and surrounding suburbs to bail out cash-strapped mass transit agencies. The Chicago Transit Authority, which runs Chicago's famed elevated trains as well as city buses, is threatening to eliminate more than half its bus routes and raise fares as high as $3.25 if it doesn't get more money.

Ouch!

October 16, 2007

I meant to post this yesterday, but one thing led to another so I'm doing it today. 

The newspapers are really stepping up the pointed rhetoric about the failure of leadership among the big players in Illinois government.  Mayor Daley and the General Assembly were hit hard by the Sun-Times on taxes.   Leslie Baldacci of the Sun-Times had a particularly snarky piece calling on Dr. Phil to mediate between warring Democratic camps.  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote about "the most expensive personality conflict in Illinois history."  The State-Journal Register had a story about all the political spin that has replaced real accomplishment.  The paper had an even more biting editorial that contained the following paragraphs:

The 2007 legislative session should have been wrapped up months ago with a pretty bow on top - especially given the ability for Democrats to do everything themselves without the help of their partisan rivals.

But it sure didn't happen that way. Senate President Emil Jones, House Speaker Michael Madigan and Gov. Rod Blagojevich have acted like three cats in a closet with their tails tied together. The Republicans might even enjoy all the caterwauling if the infighting wasn't putting so much at risk.

Thanks to this dysfunctional Democratic team even the budget that was passed cannot be fully implemented. The House has refused to approve the technical bill that would allow the increased funding for schools and other important needs to begin flowing.

If this were a third-grade playground, it would be expected. But this is about billions of our tax dollars not going to care for school kids, the disabled and old, sick people. In a word - shameful.

Read the whole article. 

The Belleville News-Democrat aimed some pretty tough words at Senate President Emil Jones, Jr...and deservedly so:

Jones isn't claiming his decision is in the public's best interest, or even that he is protecting some pet programs. No, this is all about vengeance.

He claims his fellow legislative leaders stabbed him in the back earlier in the year, and he wants retribution. "I'll be damned if I'm going to be dictated to by anyone in this chamber, anyone (in the governor's office) or anyone in the other chamber," Jones told one reporter.

Right, but it's OK for Jones to dictate to everyone else?

That's going to leave a mark! 

And I've saved my personal favorite for last, compliments of the Chicago Tribune's Dennis Byrne:

Isn't there some way for fed-up citizens of Illinois, Cook County and Chicago to force their governments into receivership?

After all, when a corporation is as stunningly incompetent as are Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, legislative leaders, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and his toady City Council, creditors can force it into bankruptcy in which a court-appointed trustee straightens out the mess or, if necessary, shuts it down to preserve the remains.

I make this suggestion with tongue only slightly in cheek. Look at the shambles that our "leaders" have given us: A state run by a governor who thinks we should cough up our money for every cockamamie giveaway and tax-increase scheme he hatches. Legislative leaders whose personal animosities have turned the state capital into a preschool playpen. A Cook County government, so wildly mis-, mal- and non-managed by Stroger and his cronies that they want to hit us up with a huge sales tax increase to bail them out.

Now comes Daley with a $293 million bundle of tax, fee and fine increases, including the city's largest-ever property tax increase, to finance an operation stinking with corruption and looting. Daley says blame the aldermen knocking on his "side door" for the goodies. Well, blame whomever; Daley is giving it away to somebody.

This piano-load of new taxes lands on Chicagoans and their visitors as they already are paying some of the nation's highest taxes and fees. That's thanks to the current $5 billion budget that imposed increases of about $75 million in taxes and $11 million in fees. How tempting it is to observe that the people who have driven the city, county and state governments into their worst financial smashup in memory are Democrats, raising the question of whether Democrats are congenitally incapable of governing. Are they mathematically challenged, having been denied the basic adding and subtracting skills by the touchy-feely education they so love? Are they so insecure that they can't say no to anyone who wants a touch of our taxes, because they might be accused of lacking compassion?

Or, maybe Daley himself provides the answer when he takes Chicagoans for dopes by saying they "know that if I propose raising taxes it's because we've exhausted every other option ..."

He could be right. Perhaps voters are dumb enough to knowingly elect incompetents. Maybe we don't need a trustee to fix things; maybe just smarter, more responsible voters.

The real question is whether voters will begin to rectify this mess one year from November. 

October 11, 2007

Senate President Emil Jones, Jr. and his partner Governor Rod Blagojevich continue their efforts to hijack the political process in Illinois.  Jones allowed approximately $8 million to be reinstated within the budget, presumably in conjunction with the Governor's Office:

But Jones relented a little Thursday, letting the Senate restore about $8 million for legislative agencies, the auditor general and Illinois' court system, along with a few other items. The 31-20 vote officially put that money back into the budget.

The money for the court system was extremely important given that the courts may play a significant role in determining if the Governor's budgetary razzle-dazzle game -- where he cuts money out of the budget and re-appropriates it in a manner more to his liking -- is legal.  The Governor's Office claims that shorting the courts money through his line item reductions was an "oversight."  Regardless, it's probably not a good idea to upset the justices who may decide if your re-appropriation scheme is merited within the framework of the Illinois Constitution. 

Senator Jones continues to run the Senate like a petty tyrant, spurning many of his own members who, along with Republicans, would simply like the chance to override the Governor with an up-or-down vote on his budget reductions.  And what's his justification?

Republicans accused Senate President Emil Jones of blocking action on hundreds of millions of dollars for petty political reasons. The Chicago Democrat responded that his actions were justified because he had been "backstabbed."

Jones angrily defended the move, saying he felt no obligation to restore the budget lawmakers originally sent to the governor because other legislative leaders worked against him behind the scenes on that and other issues.

Poor thing.  In reality, no serious evidence has emerged to prove beyond a doubt that anyone betrayed Jones.  He agreed to the initial budget sent to the Governor and then, for political reasons, changed his mind and looked for the patina of an excuse.  I wonder if Senator Jones thinks that anyone whose lives have been affected by the cuts cares that he believes himself to have been "backstabbed."

The bottom line is that the legislative leaders have entirely too much power over the process.  The wrong mix of personalities and egos can create an unmitigated disaster -- which is exactly what we have in Illinois government today. 

The General Assembly has overridden the Governor's veto of a bill that would mandate that every school day begin with a moment of silence.  I hate to say it, but the Governor was right on this one.  There's no need to require time out for prayer or reflection.  The decision should be left up to school districts.  The entire issue is a by-product of efforts, both inappropriate and discriminatory, to remove any vestige of Christianity from schools.  Such hostility toward religion has created a pro-school prayer backlash that sometimes manifests as the politically correct "moment of silence."  Truth is, if the religious bigots would quit trying to compartmentalize the expression of faith to only the private sphere, legislation like this wouldn't even exist.   

Blue state blues...Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Cook County Board President Todd Stroger both believe themselves in need of additional revenue.  Separately, the two are proposing tax and fees hikes that would total more than $1 billion dollars.  The Chicago Tribune editorializes critically about the size of  the Mayor's proposal and suggests that perhaps he shouldn't have been so quick to give in to the demands of labor unions.  Those living or operating businesses in Chicago would get hit with all of those proposed taxes were they to pass.  The Trib had this to say about the need for all this new money:

The bottom line here is that the Democratic officials who run Chicago and Cook County are asking taxpayers to fund wage and benefits packages for public employees that are more generous than many of those taxpayers will see in their own compensation. And rather than pick fights on behalf of their citizens, Daley and Stroger would rather just shrug and mutter: Suck it up. These fast-climbing personnel expenses are our cost of doing business. And now they're your cost of doing business.

But we want to keep in mind, and ask Daley and Stroger to keep in mind, that the cumulative effect of higher taxes does have an impact.

With each new tax hike private employers in Chicago and Cook County are more likely to look to other Illinois counties, to southeast Wisconsin and to northwest Indiana as attractive places to relocate.

Can I get an amen to that! 

Keep in mind that the mass transit services that operate in the city and suburbs are short of cash and will need an infusion of revenue one way or another to avoid service cuts.  One possible solution discussed is the imposition of a sales tax increase within the region serviced by the transit system.  This tax increase would hit Cook County and Chicago residents regardless of whether or not they actually use public transportation.  If Democratic leaders at various levels in Illinois government were to get their way on most if not all of these proposals, Illinois taxpayers would find themselves facing some pretty harsh realities.

It shouldn't be forgotten that several months ago the Governor was proposing to collect an estimated $6 billion on the backs of Illinois businesses via an ill-fated gross receipts tax.   Going into the spring legislative session, there was an expectation that maybe this was the year when the General Assembly and Governor would approve an income tax-property tax swap to pump more funds into education while providing some property tax relief.  Of course, the end result would still have been a net increase in taxation.  None of the Democrats are talking about reigning in new spending, only who should have to pony-up for the new spending Illinois "needs."  Imagine that!  Democrats are nothing if not predictable.

October 8, 2007

The son of former Illinois Attorney General and Republican candidate for governor Jim Ryan was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.  Jim Ryan is himself a recovering cancer patient.  This is just tragic for the Ryan family. 

Update:  I was remiss not to mention that the Ryan's had a daughter who died unexpectedly of an undiagnosed brain tumor in 1997.  Ten months later, Jim Ryan's wife Marie suffered a serious heart attack.  This family deserves everyone's prayers and a break.

Police arrested a man accused of murdering another man in Beardstown Illinois.  It is unclear if the accused shooter, twenty-two year old Rene Velazquez, is a legal resident of the United States.  Beardstown has a significant Hispanic population, many of them here illegally.

Sunday, October 7

Governor Blagojevich is still catching flak from legislators -- and rightly so -- for his lack of cooperation with the General Assembly in formulating a budget deal.

"Shortly after that," Sullivan said, "The governor, who was not a member of the budget negotiations, vetoed $463 million out of the budget."

Blagojevich was attempting to find money to revive his plan for creating a state healthcare system with money from a gross receipts tax, supplemented by additional cash. In Illinois, there are 1.4 million people with no health insurance.

"The plan was met with stiff resistance, to put it mildly," Sullivan said.

Some downstate Republican legislators have issues with Chicago getting complete control over a casino as part of a gaming bill to fund capital infrastructure projects:

The expansion bill approved by the Senate calls for a land-based casino in Chicago, two additional riverboats at locations yet to be selected and the addition of 6,000 gaming positions at the state's nine existing riverboats. In practical terms, the riverboats probably would add thousands of slot machines and other electronic gambling games, which produce more money than table games.

Most lawmakers agree that a casino in Chicago would be very lucrative and many support the idea in concept. But some downstate Republicans said the way a Chicago casino is handled in the Senate bill is unacceptable to them.

In particular, they dislike the idea that a Chicago casino would not be under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Gaming Board. Instead, a separate board appointed by Mayor Richard Daley and Gov. Rod Blagojevich would oversee the Chicago operation. A private company would operate the casino, but it would be owned by the city.

"I don't think we're going to have Chicago owning that license," said Rep. Rich Brauer, R-Petersburg. "I'm certainly not going to support that."

"If it is regulated by a separate board, that's a deal-killer," said Rep. Bill Mitchell, R-Forsyth.

Imposing a tax based on the number of parking spaces available in lots owned by businesses is being discussed as an option to raise the necessary funds to avert an RTA transportation service cut-back in the Chicagoland area:

If the transit agencies don't get more tax money by Nov. 4, riders will start to endure an escalating succession of fare hikes and service cuts. By early next year, transit officials say suburbanites might lose all weekend service and scores of weekday routes while paying 10 to 50 percent more.

For months, the RTA has been pushing a sales tax hike to account for part of a $430 million boost in transit funding. But Gov. Rod Blagojevich's threat to veto the deal has prevented it from gaining enough support among lawmakers.

Other ideas that have been floated include an increase in business property taxes based on the number of parking spaces. The plan has been widely opposed in the suburbs because of the proliferation of malls but could gain support among lawmakers hesitant to raise taxes directly on people.

I don't know exactly how taxation on parking spaces would work, but I wonder if anyone has considered that businesses might block-off parts of their lots, re-stripe or otherwise eliminate all parking stripes to reduce or avoid paying the tax altogether.  There are always unintended consequences with any kind of tax policy.  If the RTA needs a bailout, the most sensible thing to do is to raise fares on users and allow for the optional regional tax previously floated to address the problem.

Saturday, October 6

Cook County Democrats Major Contributors to Illinois' Fiscal Plight 

Cook County government in many ways reflects the broader fiscal problems facing state government in Illinois -- spending in excess of revenues:

Not enough money is coming in. Property tax revenue has been flat since the 1990s, the federal government has cut millions of Medicaid dollars, and the taxes and fees that have patched the hole aren't making up the difference.

And too much money is going out. Even though thousands of county positions have been cut, payroll keeps going up.

Personnel costs and largely uncompensated for medical costs are a significant driver of the spending frenzy:

Beyond argument is the fact that the county's payroll costs have continued to climb even as the number of jobs has fallen. The number of budgeted positions, 23,706, is 3,330 fewer than in 1998.

More than 80 percent of the county's operating budget consists of personnel costs, and those are largely driven by union contracts that mandate generous health-care and old-fashioned pension packages on top of annual cost-of-living raises and, frequently, "step" increases that raise wages even higher.

The windfall helped the county expand its health system from a handful of neighborhood clinics to 30 and build the West Side public hospital named for John Stroger.

But even as the revenue was spiking for Cook County, the federal government had already taken action to begin ratcheting down the payments. Between 2005 and 2007, the county's take dropped by $108 million and is expected to be lowered by an additional $13 million next year, with an uncertain future after that.

That reduction, coupled with flat property tax revenues, has put incredible pressure on the county to finally begin doing what most hospitals do as a matter of course: send bills to patients, insurance companies and the government's Medicaid and Medicare programs.

But the county isn't very good at collecting those bills. A recent study determined that Cook County is losing at least $40 million a year for its failure to adequately bill patients.

Maybe it was a mistake to expand programs and costs when the revenue stream used to do so came from a source that couldn't necessarily be counted on to continue providing money in perpetuity?  It's like buying a house with a substantially higher monthly mortgage payment based upon some extra money thrown your way by a rich relative.  You shouldn't raise your costs unless you are sure that you can pay for it on your own because the extra money may not always be there.

Cook County has, as is the case with state government, been diagnosed as suffering from a "structural deficit."  In other words, revenues are falling substantially short of spending.  "Structural deficit" is a term of art used by those who have already concluded that spending cannot or should not see any meaningful reduction.  It is also a code phrase for "we need to raise taxes to get out of the financial hole we have dug." The Cook County Board is not surprisingly considering a sales tax increase while Board President Todd Stroger claims that at best he might be able to find one million dollars to cut out of the budget:

"Do I think there could be fat somewhere? I think in a government this large there's probably always going to be some fat. Do I think we have $307 million worth of fat? No. There could be up to a million dollars worth of fat, maybe."

It's probably no coincidence that the fiscal problems created in Cook County beginning a decade ago are also beginning to manifest in state government.  After all, each chamber of the General Assembly and all constitutional offices are controlled by -- you guessed it -- Cook County Democrats.  For all their disagreements and acrimony, neither Governor Blagojevich and Senate President Emil Jones, Jr. on the one hand and Speaker Madigan on the other want to cut spending.  They only disagree over how much it should be increased.  Madigan is being far more adult and realistic than his adversaries in the battle for control over state government taxes and spending, but lost in the debate is why Illinois needs to increase spending for any purpose when the state is running deficits that have in recent years only been patched over through smoke-and-mirror budgetary gimmicks.  Needless to say, no Illinois politicians should be proposing any kind of revenue enhancement to fix "structural deficits" until the taxpayers are presented with a serious and responsible plan to cut spending and allocate resources to addressing problems like the burgeoning pension debt.  I dare say that this is probably not a job for Democrats of the Cook County variety.

In other news... 

Mayor Daley has allowed his desire for the 2016 Olympics to unnerve him into capitulating to the Teamsters Union on issues of privatization and layoffs. 

More Illinois corruption.  This time involving kickbacks to an official serving in the Ryan Administration.  The Ryan Administration continues to be an embarrassment and an anchor around the necks of Illinois Republicans.

The campaign fund of Cook County Board President Todd Stroger won't take too much of a hit after all.  It looks like the fines assessed for failing to report political contributions in a timely manner will be drastically reduced by the State Board of Elections because the failure was a "first-time" offense.  See, the system does work after all -- for the politicians.

Capitol Hypocrisy On Capital Spending Bill

The following is a guest column submitted by a friend.  For simplicity's sake, let's call him "Joe."

This past week, the Illinois Senate passed three major bills.  The first bill expanded the number of gambling positions and added three new casinos, including a land based casino in Chicago.  The second bill was simply the bonding mechanism for the new money that will be collected through the expansion of gambling and the third was the appropriation of that money.  This appropriation bill distributed $12,000,000,000 to virtually every known entity across Illinois.  

The gambling expansion bill passed with 37 votes. The bonding bill passed with 52 and the appropriations bill passed with 58 votes.  One does not have to be a mathematician to figure out that some Senators that did not vote for the expansion of gambling did vote for appropriating the money.  I ask myself how that can be.  Can an elected official vote to spend money even though he or she does not vote for the revenue source?  Obviously, it seems that the answer is ‘yes.’  I guess this proves that certain people can have their cake and eat it too.

However, I find this behavior hypocritical.  If a State Senator believes in helping their district fund needed projects, such as sewer extensions, infrastructure improvements or upgrading roads, they had better be able to face the music and also vote for a funding source for those projects.  I am not criticizing any State Senator for being against gambling expansion.  If they have a strong belief that gambling should not be expanded in the State of Illinois, that is a perfectly legitimate stance.  But if a State Senator cannot vote for the only revenue source on the table to fund the Capital bill, than that Senator should not vote for spending the money that would be collected through gambling expansion.  But, hey, this is Illinois and as everyone knows Illinois politicians don’t always play by the written or unwritten rules.  This is just another example of Illinois politicians acting irresponsibly and not wanting to make tough decisions.

Poll Reflects The Times

Rich Miller has a story in the print version of "Capitol Fax" about a poll conducted by Ask Illinois that seeks to rank what Illinois voters identify as the most important issue for the state.  The poll was commissioned by opponents to Governor Blagojevich's universal health care proposal.  Survey participants were given six choices and asked to select the most important one.  In many ways, the result was a sign of the times.  The first four items in some way or another represent something voters want for themselves or their families.  That's understandable.  What was disturbing, but not really surprising, was that participants ranked "paying down the state debt" fifth (with a lowly 10%) out of six possible priorities.  Property tax relief, education funding, health care and electricity rate relief were deemed more important to the 600 likely voters surveyed.  That got me thinking about our society's approach to finances.  Many, many people will continue to acquire new products and services they can't really afford while maxing out their credit cards or otherwise not committing themselves to paying down their credit card debt.  Such a practice leaves people in a heap of financial trouble.  Those same voters apparently express that same economic value system when looking at politics.  They want more stuff and aren't willing to wait until they are in a better position to afford it.