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Friday, Feb 18, 2005
No, she’s not hanging with hippies. This is a photo of JBT with a priest identified here as
The Very Reverend Archimandrite Zacchaeus (Wood) - Dean of the Church of St. Catherine the Great Martyr in-the-Fields, Representative of the Orthodox Church in America to the Moscow Patriarchate
Topinka was attending a function to raise money for a new bell for St. Catherine the Great Martyr Church.
- posted by Rich Miller 5 Comments
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Friday, Feb 18, 2005
Anyone know what happened to Will County Hairspray? I praised the site a few days ago as the best micro politics blog around, and now it has disappeared.
(Thanks to a commenter for the tip.)
- posted by Rich Miller 3 Comments
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Friday, Feb 18, 2005
“People feel better when they take crack. People feel better when they take heroin. People feel better when they take meth.”
- White House drug czar John Walters, testifying yesterday at the Statehouse against a proposal to allow for the medicinal use of marijuana.
First runner-up:
“The word ‘pledge’ conjures up to me, you know, did you sign a pledge, did you promise to make a pledge, no tax pledge, those sorts of things.”
- Governor Rod Blagojevich, explaining to the Daily Herald’s editorial board why his repeated campaign promise to direct 51 percent of all new state revenue for education wasn’t a “pledge.”
- posted by Rich Miller 9 Comments
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Friday, Feb 18, 2005
Asked yesterday why he hasn’t filled the three open slots on the Illinois Gaming Board, the governor had this to say:
Blagojevich said the “big problem” in filling the vacancies is that “a lot of good, qualified people either don’t want to be a part of it because it’s been sort of a maligned place” or because they “have a horse in this race,” such as working for a law firm that represents a casino.
Left unsaid, however, was that it was Blagojevich who heaped “malign” on the Board in the first place. It can’t be easy to convince someone to serve on a board when that person knows you’re gonna throw him under the bus at the first opportunity.
- posted by Rich Miller 11 Comments
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Friday, Feb 18, 2005
One of the standard talking points against Governor Blagojevich’s proposal to slap a 75 cent per pack tax hike on cigarettes is that it will drive consumers to other states. Illinois has some long borders, and businesses worry they’ll lose even more customers.
But Iowa is now looking at jacking up its low cigarette tax rates, from 36 cents per pack (41st lowest in the nation) to anywhere from $1.116 to $1.36 per pack, which would make their taxes higher than Illinois’ current tax rate (the proposed 75 cent increase would put Illinois at $1.73).
Most of Iowa’s Senate Republicans oppose the proposed tax hike, but it may be gaining steam. The Iowa Senate is divided evenly between the parties.
“It’s the big lie,” said Senate Republican Leader Stewart Iverson of Dows. “We see we are going to be able to grow our way out of this without a tax increase.”
Iverson said a majority of Senate Republicans are opposed to increasing the cigarette tax, currently 36 cents a pack, but they can’t simply slam the door on the idea because the Senate is split, 25-25, between Democrats and Republicans. Health groups, meanwhile, are turning up the heat on the Legislature to approve a cigarette tax increase.
- posted by Rich Miller Comment
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Friday, Feb 18, 2005
The Daily Herald discovers a hitch in the governor’s education spending proposal.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich proposed $140 million in new spending for schools during his budget address Wednesday.
But cuts in other areas - including an anticipated drop in federal funds - mean the total increase would be closer to $74 million.
Go read the full story for more details.
- posted by Rich Miller 1 Comment
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Friday, Feb 18, 2005
If you’ve never read James Wolcott’s Tracer Fire blog, you are missing out on one of the great pleasures of the Internets.
Wolcott, a Vanity Fair writer and author, is a magnificent wordsmith. Even if you don’t always agree with his politics, it’s impossible not to marvel at the way he writes. A very brief excerpt from this week:
[He has a] thumbless grasp of the issues and a propensity for lachrymose whimpering when he doesn’t get his way.
Follow the above link to discover the target of Wolcott’s fantastic putdown.
- posted by Rich Miller 2 Comments
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Thursday, Feb 17, 2005
An anonymous person in the Quad Cities saw my repeated requests that somebody start a microblog for that region. The Inside Dope is the result. So far, so good.
- posted by Rich Miller 13 Comments
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Thursday, Feb 17, 2005
OneMan makes a good point today about the governor’s plan to increase cigarette taxes by 75 cents a pack.
The governor said yesterday about smoking: “There’s no single voluntary act that causes more damage, more destruction, and more health care costs than smoking. If we raise the cigarette tax by 75 cents and raise the tax on cigars, we can generate over $150 million each year in revenue.”
OneMan responds:
So let me get this right, since smoking causes all sorts of costs to society as a whole we are going to raise taxes on smoking (ok, so far somewhat logical) But not to cover the costs to society of smoking but to build roads (so much for logic).
- posted by Rich Miller 4 Comments
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Thursday, Feb 17, 2005
From an editorial today in the Bloomington Pantagraph:
[Governor Blagojevich] also lamented 10 percent annual increases lately in Medicaid costs, but then said he wanted to make 74,000 more people qualify for the state’s “Family Care” program, which is funded through Medicaid. He also added people last year. If he wants to “hold the line” on costs, he has to hold the line on qualifiers.
That’s a good catch by the Pantagraph folks, and I had already planned on writing about this tomorrow. Stay tuned.
- posted by Rich Miller Comment
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Thursday, Feb 17, 2005
From the governor’s budget address:
And one way to control spending is to adopt a system of pay as you go.
The idea is really very simple.
If any of us propose new spending – whether it’s the Governor, members of the legislature, constitutional officers, or anyone else – we should identify how we’re going to pay for it.
Is there a dedicated revenue source? Is there a corresponding spending cut? Where is the money going to come from? What are we going to do to make sure the numbers all add up, so the red ink stays dry?
Nine other states already do this.
Illinois Constitution:
Bills, except bills for appropriations and for the codification, revision or rearrangement of laws, shall be confined to one subject. Appropriation bills shall be limited to the subject of appropriations.
- posted by Rich Miller 7 Comments
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Thursday, Feb 17, 2005
Yesterday, the governor said this:
Blagojevich proposed a $140 million increase for schools next year, to be funded through a potentially risky plan of dipping into some of the more than 400 special funds set up throughout state government that collect cash from licensing fees and fines.
That increase is well below the school-funding increases he signed off on in his first two budgets, and it provoked criticism in the Legislature that Blagojevich was failing to live up to some of his key campaign promises on education — a claim the governor denied. […]
When asked after his address why his spending proposal that appeared to fall short of his 51percent pledge did not amount to a broken campaign promise, Blagojevich responded, “Because it never was one.”
Not quite. As I pointed out in today’s Capitol Fax, this is what candidate Rod Blagojevich said in 2002:
“One way that I plan to increase funding for our schools is by not only continuing Governor Ryan’s commitment to direct 51 percent of new revenues to education funding, but to codify that promise into law.”
- posted by Rich Miller 3 Comments
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Thursday, Feb 17, 2005
I don’t really care about the story, but I thought the headline was too good to pass up.
Rotarians want DHS to stay put
The executive board of the Morris Rotary Club has adopted a resolution urging the Illinois Department of Human Services to keep the Morris/Grundy County office open permanently.
I’m not sure why I find that hed so amusing, but I do.
- posted by Rich Miller Comment
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Wednesday, Feb 16, 2005
Three cheers for Dawn Turner Rice’s column today.
I grew up not far from Pembroke Township. The area has been getting screwed for years by the county and the state. Promises, promises, but nothing ever happens. I was suspicious when Governor Blagojevich made more promises in 2003, and was hoping to do a follow-up this spring. Rice beat me to it, but I’m still going back this spring.
Driving through town on a rainy day was what I imagined a drive through hell would be like. The roads turned to quicksand. For miles and miles, my car’s tires would struggle to maintain traction. I could only pray that I wouldn’t spin out into a ditch. […]
Every few years or so, politicians and others make their way to Pembroke, which is about 50 miles south of Chicago, to shake their heads and say something like: “Gee, it’s so hard to believe people live like this in [you fill in the year.] Many of the roads are unpaved. Too many of the residents are unemployed. There are no natural gas lines. The water tastes toxic. And some of the homes have dirt floors.”[…]
[In July of 2003] Team Illinois began. Designed by Secretary Carol Adams of the Illinois Department of Human Services, Team Illinois was expected to revitalize four impoverished Illinois communities, including Pembroke.
Adams compared the effort to programs such as Habitat for Humanity or an old-fashioned barn-raising.
“It is important that this not be some flash in the pan,” she said.
In terms of road-raising, since then, the Illinois Department of Transportation has paved 4 miles of roads, put up road signs and completed a 26-mile roadside cleanup, according to Adams’ office. But Pembroke’s road commissioner, Albert Sutton, said Team Illinois came out and got IDOT to lay gravel down along about 2.5 miles of road.
“They haven’t paved anything,” he said. “And then they paid for it out of funds we already had. They promised to bring funds, but nothing has happened. We’ve gotten nothing but promises, and we still have over 70 miles of roads that need help.” […]
Hopkins Park Mayor Jones “Jon” Dyson told me he believes the roads soon will be getting better. He said IDOT had come to town recently with truckloads of gravel and more promises.
I don’t know about Dyson, but I’d have to see it to believe it.
Gravel ain’t gonna make it. The soil is so sandy that the gravel quickly sinks out of sight and disappears. I don’t care how many truckloads of gravel the state hauls, it’s not going to work.
- posted by Rich Miller 2 Comments
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Wednesday, Feb 16, 2005
From the Associated Press:
Gov. Rod Blagojevich is proposing an unusually small $140 million increase in education spending for the next budget year that depends on a tricky plan to siphon money from special state funds.
The Democratic governor also wants to borrow $500 million to help pay for school construction, a proposal similar to one lawmakers shot down last summer.
If the Legislature approves his proposed $140 million increase for pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade schools, it would be 69 percent less than what Blagojevich has gotten, on average, for schools the past two years and the lowest since Gov. George Ryan’s last budget in the fiscal year that ended in mid-2003, when school spending actually decreased. […]
[Budget Director John Filan] refused to identify any of the funds that could be targeted for the sweeps, but he said five accounts would be exempt from subsidizing education: debt-service accounts, payments to local governments, federal funds, road funds and the “rainy day” fund.
And then there’s this summary:
BOTTOM LINE: $43.56 billion in operating expenses, plus $9.43 billion in construction and maintenance costs.
WHERE IT GOES: 28.3 percent to public aid; 26.4 percent education; 24 percent human services; 7.6 percent economic development; 6 percent government services; 5.9 percent public safety; 1.8 percent business and environmental regulation.
NEW MONEY: $800 million natural revenue growth, $155 million from higher tobacco taxes, $65 million from software tax on businesses, $43 million from change in fees on some fuel.[…]
CIGARETTE TAX: Increase the tax 75 cents a pack, to a total of $1.73, to fund construction programs.
ENVIRONMENT: Fund conservation and rehire 50 park employees by eliminating tax credit for landfill-generated electricity; support vehicle emissions testing and storage tank inspections by charging fee on fuel stored in Illinois and later moved out of state.
SAVINGS: $800 million by restructuring pension obligations, $150 million in changes to healthcare for the poor, $35 million in changes to the state insurance program.
And this:
FY2004: $52.4 billion budget proposed, $5 billion deficit.
FY2005: $53.6 billion budget proposed, $2.3 billion deficit.
FY2006: $53 billion budget proposed, $1.1 billion deficit.
- posted by Rich Miller 6 Comments
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Wednesday, Feb 16, 2005
Usually, top Democrats in this state have gone out of their way to placate US House Speaker Denny Hastert. Senate President Emil Jones has broken with the pack, however.
A top state Democrat blasted the U.S. House speaker Tuesday on what he called silence on President Bush’s proposed cut in federal Amtrak funding.
The administration budget for fiscal year 2006, unveiled last week, provides no operating funds for Amtrak. State Senate President Emil Jones of Chicago condemned Speaker Denny Hastert, a Republican from Plano, for not criticizing the plan.
“As important as transportation is in Illinois and across this nation, I would hope that the speaker of the House, who happens to be from Illinois, would stand up, even if it’s against his own president, and know this is wrong,” Jones said. […]
“Speaker Hastert shouldn’t sit back there like he has lockjaw,” Jones said. “He should speak up for the people of Illinois.”
- posted by Rich Miller 1 Comment
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Wednesday, Feb 16, 2005
I’ll be on PBS’ Illinois Lawmakers leadoff show before today’s budget address. Check your local listings, but the live program begins at noon.
Capitol Fax subscribers read a comprehensive review of the governor’s upcoming budget address. Others can click here for a couple of the items I covered.
- posted by Rich Miller 1 Comment
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Tuesday, Feb 15, 2005
ABC-7’s “I-Team” ran a story last night on a strange food service contract at the tollway.
The I-Team uncovered a food contract between the Illinois Tollway and a company that has ties to a mega millionaire. Eddie Debartolo Jr. is also a convicted felon. Debartolo was once caught bribing Louisiana’s governor with a briefcase full of cash.
A company launched by Debartolo is opening pizzerias inside every renovated tollway oasis in Illinois. Tollway officials defend the deal.
Eddie Debartolo Jr. is one of the country’s 300 richest men. The Notre Dame graduate’s net worth is estimated at more than $900-million, made mostly through primarily from real estate and shopping centers.
Debartolo was the owner of the NFL’s San Francisco 49er’s. He was forced to permanently leave the business after pleading guilty in a gambling scandal involving a corrupt southern governor. Now Debartolo’s pizza place is open for business at the O’Hare Oasis in Schiller Park.
Famous Famiglia has a firm ten-year state contract to sell pizza pies at the refurbished Illinois Tollway Oases. Two are open now. Two more will open this week with the last three after that. The contract for the oasis pizza parlors is with a company called: FD Leasing, of White Plains, NY. The “F” is for Famiglia. The “D” is for Debartolo. […]
Despite Debartolo’s record — and a prohibition against state contracts for felons — the company got the deal. Illinois State Toll Highway Authority officials said the pizza contract is not with Debartolo. They said the contract is with FD Leasing and Debartolo’s name is nowhere on the contract.
Tollway officials said their legal staff reviewed the deal and concluded that it didn’t fall within the felon prohibition because FD was not involved in the corruption problem. […]
So why was New York selected and not a Chicago pizza maker? The company’s president laughed and said, “I think the guy was drunk when he gave it to us.”
He admits though, sales are not great so far although they are looking to bid for O’Hare and Midway airports concessions when those contracts come up.
- posted by Rich Miller 17 Comments
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Tuesday, Feb 15, 2005
Somebody in Calumet City is truly deranged.
Calumet City officials reported finding two dead cats under their re-election campaign signs over the weekend.
Authorities said the animals were believed to have been strangled.
City Hall Spokesman Jason McCabe suggested Monday that the dead cats were placed under the signs by people who do not support Mayor Michelle Markiewicz Qualkinbush’s slate, which includes the entire sitting City Council. […]
The report represents the latest in a string of incidents officials are referring to as “political vandalism” believed to be fueled by the upcoming primary, including racial slurs spray-painted on a billboard above a black dummy hanged in effigy and a host of spray-painted campaign signs.
Anybody know what the heck is going on there?
- posted by Rich Miller 1 Comment
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Tuesday, Feb 15, 2005
Rep. Monique Davis has a new bill.
“Reasonable belief” that drugs are in someone’s car would be needed, not “ear-piercing or dreadlocks,” for police in Illinois to use drug-sniffing dogs under a bill filed Monday by Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago).
The measure is a response to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision based on an Illinois case. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan argued in favor of the dogs’ use before the high court, which agreed with her in overruling an Illinois Supreme Court decision.
“In my opinion, this will lead to a police state,” Davis said, subjecting “innocent motorists, college students and especially people of color to the harassing, frightening and embarrassing experience of a dog search.”
I’d be interested to know how you feel about this subject. Read the whole story for more first, of course.
- posted by Rich Miller 5 Comments
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Tuesday, Feb 15, 2005
When you make a habit of throwing your friends under the nearest bus, sometimes you discover that they’ve returned the favor.
Lawmakers called for investigations Monday into links between new tollway oasis food vendors and two of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s closest advisers, but an aide to the governor said he had no plans to ask his inspector general to look into the matter. […]
Despite Blagojevich’s contention that there was nothing to investigate, State Sen. Susan Garrett, a Lake Forest Democrat, said the governor should ask his inspector general to look into the matter, “just to clear the air.” Democratic Sen. Jeff Schoenberg of Evanston, who like Garrett is an advocate for tollway reform, said the revelations taint progress the governor has made at improving the tollway. […]
Both Garrett and Schoenberg called for legislation that would require more disclosure of the financial holdings of people who either act as informal advisers to the governor as well as for tenants in state buildings like oases. Schoenberg said he would push for provisions that would require quicker and more complete filings of the informal advisers.
- posted by Rich Miller 8 Comments
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Tuesday, Feb 15, 2005
Less than two weeks ago, you may recall, Governor Rod Blagojevich sent letters to the Vermont House and the governor urging them to pass and sign an I-Save Rx bill that he had promoted and had been approved by a Senate committee.
Well, yesterday, the Vermont legislature passed the bill.
The state Legislature has passed a bill authorizing the state to take part in a program that allows residents to buy prescription drugs from Canada. Gov. Jim Douglas plans to sign the measure, which would make Vermont the fourth state to join the program, I-Save Rx, first put in place by Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois last fall. Vermont sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in August for rejecting a plan with a Canadian pharmacy in which Vermonters could receive mail-order prescriptions.
Bet he couldn’t repeat that rapid success in Illinois right now.
- posted by Rich Miller 1 Comment
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Tuesday, Feb 15, 2005
This has become a standard part of Steve Rauschenberger’s stump speech lately, but I’m not sure that he wants people doing their own translating.
Rauschenberger (who said his name means “smoke in the mountains” in German…
Actually, “rauchen,” not “rauschen,” is the German word for smoking. Rauchenberg (the “er” may give it plurality, but we’ll leave the minor details of translations to another day and eliminate it here) would translate to: “Smoking Mountain.”
According to several online translators, “Rauschenberg” translates into English as: “Noise Mountain.”
Not so good.
- posted by Rich Miller Comment
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