I saw Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias hanging out on a park bench near the Statehouse last week, shoes off on a beautiful day, Chicago Olympics financial report in hand.
We talked about various things, and he mentioned to me that former Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka wasn’t getting enough credit for the recent Bright Start college savings program revamp. I was planning to do a piece about that this week, but the Tribune editorial board beat me to it…
The core of the new program was negotiated by Judy Baar Topinka as she was finishing up her term as state treasurer. She allowed her successor, Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, to negotiate the final details and he got some very sound improvements. They deserve credit for cooperation in a Republican-to-Democrat transition.
Giannoulias told me last week that Topinka also got the ball rolling in a major way on cleaning up the Springfield Cellini hotel mess, but that she didn’t want to take credit for it during the gubernatorial campaign because it would have brought up a sore subject.
Again, high praise for Giannoulias. He didn’t have to share credit, but he did. Class act.
Also, in case you were wondering if he was playing hooky from work, Giannoulias made it a point to say he was on his lunch break.