Category Archives: State of Illinois

Press release: “Koehler Thinks Quinn’s Budget Is a Good Start”

From a press release:

State Senator David Koehler (D-Peoria) believes that Governor Quinn’s budget proposal will provide a good base for negotiations.

“Governor Quinn has included some things in this budget that the state has desperately needed for a long time,” said Koehler. “I’m particularly happy to see a capital plan that includes road repair for Peoria, Tazewell, and Fulton Counties. We need to repair Illinois’ aging infrastructure.”

According to the Governor’s office, the capital construction plan will cost approximately $26 billion and create as many as 340,000 jobs. The proposed plan includes both new construction and repairs, targeted at roads and bridges, schools, and mass transit. It also includes investments in green technology, Illinois-based energy sources, and economic development.

“Another area I’m pleased about is education,” said Senator Koehler. “The budget proposal contains an increase in money for K-12 education. We need to do all we can to ensure Illinois students can compete with their peers nationwide, even in these tough economic times. This increase may not be as high as we’ve provided in the past, but given the state’s financial woes, it’s still a positive step.”

The Governor’s proposal also includes a number of initiatives to enhance revenue. One initiative is an income tax increase of 1.5%, accompanied by higher exemptions to protect low-income families. The Governor also suggests increasing a number of fees.

“I think Governor Quinn’s tax proposal is a good starting point,” said Koehler. “It’s clear that we are going to have to do something to increase revenue. It’s hard to say exactly what form tax and fee increases will take, but knowing that the Governor is committed to protecting low and middle income Illinoisans is reassuring.”

Senator Koehler lauded several of the Governor’s other commitments.

“The Governor has promised to make sure the state pays its bills on time,” said Koehler. “Our failure to provide timely reimbursements to doctors, hospitals, and other vital service providers has been a huge disappointment. A prompt payment schedule will help ensure Illinois citizens receive quality services and keep businesses and facilities open. I also like Governor Quinn’s idea of a 10-day sales tax holiday to help families afford back-to-school shopping. When we vote on a final budget, I hope it includes measures that help struggling families.”

I-74 resurfacing gets stimulus funds

The New York Times has an interesting sidebar on “State government proposals for spending transportation money from the federal stimulus law.” I clicked on Illinois just for fun. Not surprisingly, most of the money goes to Cook County. I scoured the document for Peoria County and found just two items:

мебели пловдив 

Route/Street Location Improvements Est. Cost
I 74 W OF KICKAPOO-EDWARDS RD TO E OF I-474, Miles = 5.71 RESURFACING, COLD MILLING $9,180,000
I 74 KICKAPOO CREEK TRIB 0.7 MI W OF ILL 6 CULVERT REHABILITATION $60,000

 

Kind of disappointing, if you ask me. Why not use those millions to improve Route 40 between I-474 and I-74? They could use that money to construct a new entrance to the Eagle View area to make it more viable, remove the median near I-474 to make that commercial area more viable, and improve the Warehouse District area to allow more economic development to happen there. There are a lot more benefits to that project than resurfacing I-74, which would be done anyway regardless of the stimulus.

Did Peoria County break ethics law by conducting survey?

Recently, Peoria County did a web-based survey regarding the proposed downtown museum with this explanation:

Your Peoria County Government is interested in your opinion regarding public funding of the Peoria Riverfront Museum. Museum partners have requested public funding to complete the project, so the County Board must decide whether to proceed with a referendum to increase the sales tax rate one quarter of one percent. Your participation in this brief survey will help with that decision.

And as part of its “National Citizen Survey” in 2008, it asked this question:

The Peoria Riverfront Museum project – with a focus on education, history, arts, and sciences – has fallen short of its public and private fundraising goals. To what degree would you support or oppose a voter referendum to increase the sales tax rate by .25 percent (for example, from 8.0% to 8.25% for the City of Peoria) to fund the remaining cost of constructing money?

The question is, can the county do this — legally? The municipal code (as required by state law under 5 ILCS 430) appears to prohibit this kind of political activity. Sec. 2-29(b)(1) and (2) states, “No officer or employee shall intentionally perform any prohibited political activity during any compensated time, as defined herein.” There’s a whole list of what is considered “prohibited political activity,” but here’s the one about surveys from Sec. 2-29(a) [emphasis mine]:

Prohibited political activity means [. . .] (5) Surveying or gathering information from potential or actual voters in an election to determine probable vote outcome in connection with a campaign for elective office or on behalf of a political organization for political purposes or for or against any referendum question.

Isn’t this precisely what the county has done? The web survey and the National Citizen Survey question are clear attempts to determine the probable vote outcome of a sales tax referendum for the museum. They were both done at county expense, on county time, by county employees. What service does this provide citizens of the county? None that I can see. The only thing it appears to provide is taxpayer-funded market research for the museum group.

Amtrak study to be released in March

Amtrak and the Illinois Department of Transportation is currently studying the feasibility of establishing passenger train service between Chicago and Peoria. The report was originally supposed to be released toward the end of last year, but there were a number of delays, sources tell Mayor Ardis. Ardis recently gave me a status update — Amtrak/IDOT has finished their visual inspection of the routes being studied, and they are crunching the numbers. The study should be completed by next month.

House committee: Impeach Blagojevich (UPDATED)

UPDATE: The full house voted 114-1 on Friday morning to impeach Rod Blagojevich. The Senate will hold the trial.

The House Committee on Impeachment unanimously recommended that Rod Blagojevich be impeached. Their recommendation now moves to the full House, where lawmakers are expected to vote tomorrow. If it passes (or should I say, when it passes), the Senate will then hold an impeachment trial.

Here’s the Committee’s report. Here’s the summary:

In sum, the Committee heard a great volume of evidence relating to the Governor’s abuse of power. The Committee received a criminal complaint and affidavit whose weight comes primarily from the Governor’s own words, when he was unaware that the government was listening. Those recordings captured the Governor overseeing and directing plans to negotiate a personal benefit for his appointment of a u.S. Senator; conditioning the provision of State financial assistance to the Tribune Company on the firing of members of the Chicago Tribune editorial board; and engaging in a number of instances of tying official actions to campaign contributions. The Committee saw further evidence of the Governor linking campaign contributions to official actions with the sworn federal court testimony of Ali Ata and Joseph Cari, testimony which helped lead to the conviction of one of the Governor’s top fundraisers, Antoin Rezko. The Committee heard evidence that the Governor defied JCAR and expanded a health care plan without legal authority or a funding source. And the Committee heard a number of abuses exposed by Auditor General Holland in his audits of the flu vaccine program, the I-SaveRx program, and the efficiency initiative.

In response to all of this evidence, the Governor chose to remain silent and absent from the proceedings. His counsel offered a Transition Report from the President-Elect’s attorney on the subject of the Senate seat and a videotape of a press conference by Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. Beyond that, the Governor’s counsel named four individuals that, he predicted, would testify that they were not approached by anyone from the Governor’s staff for any wrongful purpose related to the Senate seat and, in one case, related to the Tribune Company issue. It is fair to note, however, that at the time the Governor’s counsel made the proffer of the four witnesses (December 23, 2008), the U.S. Attorney had already requested that the Committee refrain from inquiring into the subject matters of the Senate seat and the Tribune Company (December 22,2008). The Governor’s counsel knew, at the time he made the request, that it would not be granted.

In sum, the Committee has heard a great deal of evidence relating to various instances where the Governor’s inappropriate actions constitute abuse of power. The Governor’s counsel, in response, has provided the Committee only a small amount of information that does not even address the majority of the claims raised in this proceeding.

My favorite part is where he paid someone who didn’t know sign language to be an interpreter for the deaf.

Blagojevich appoints Burris

From the state that gave you “the audacity of hope” now comes the audacity of Blagojevich. The Chicago Tribune reports:

In a display of political bravado, disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich today appointed former Illinois Atty. Gen. Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate, challenging national Democratic leaders to reject the appointment of an African-American to the seat that propelled Barack Obama to the White House.

What’s really funny is Bobby Rush. “Democratic U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush of Chicago […] underscored the role of race in the governor’s decision by using racially charged terms to defend the appointment.” Yet it’s Secretary of State Jesse White (a black man) who won’t certify the appointment, and President-elect Barack Obama (a black man) who is also repudiating the appointment. I suppose Rush would have us believe they’re racist, too.

Obama explained the situation perfectly in his statement:

“Roland Burris is a good man and a fine public servant, but the Senate Democrats made it clear weeks ago that they cannot accept an appointment made by a governor who is accused of selling this very Senate seat. I agree with their decision, and it is extremely disappointing that Governor Blagojevich has chosen to ignore it. I believe the best resolution would be for the Governor to resign his office and allow a lawful and appropriate process of succession to take place. While Governor Blagojevich is entitled to his day in court, the people of Illinois are entitled to a functioning government and major decisions free of taint and controversy.”

Obligatory post on Blagojevich

It’s really a shame I don’t have time to blog. I’d love to talk about this some more:

Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested today by FBI agents for what U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald called a “staggering” level of corruption involving pay-to-play politics in Illinois’ top office.

But, alas, I can’t. But here’s a post about it so you all can discuss it. It’s disgusting, isn’t it? Especially after we just sent one corrupt governor up the river.

Which reminds me, any word on whether Dick Durbin has asked Bush to pardon Blagojevich yet?

Who’s afraid of the big bad economy? Not the museum!

From the Journal Star:

With little debate, the Illinois Senate today voted 51-4 to send Gov. Rod Blagojevich a proposal to let Peoria County ask voters to OK a special sales tax to help pay for the Peoria riverfront museum.

The legislation, Senate Bill 1290, passed earlier in the House of Representatives. With Blagojevich’s signature, it would become law, and the question could be put to voters in the February or April municipal elections.

Not mentioned in the article is the fact that the bill allows increases in 1/4% increments, and could be used toward any “public facility” (e.g., Belwood Nursing Home), not just the museum. The way it will likely read on the ballot is:

To pay for public facility purposes, shall Peoria County be authorized to impose an increase on its share of local sales taxes by .25% (.0025) for a period not to exceed (insert number of years)?

This would mean that a consumer would pay an additional 25ยข ($0.25) in sales tax for every $100 of tangible personal property bought at retail. If imposed, the additional tax would cease being collected at the end of (insert number of years), if not terminated earlier by a vote of the county board.”

A quarter of a percent increase doesn’t sound like a whole lot, does it? But consider that, if this referendum were to pass, you would be paying .25% more on things that already are highly taxed — like restaurant food (which would go from 10% to 10.25% in the city). Is that going to make Peoria more or less competitive than East Peoria, right across the river? How many people do you think will come to see the museum in Peoria, then go have lunch in East Peoria?

And what about the economy? Is this the time to be increasing taxes when there’s plenty of unemployed people? What is the city’s solution on how to decrease the unemployment rate?
Consider these other items in the news as of late:

  • “[T]he effects of the economic crisis are being felt beyond Wall Street as charities locally and nationwide report increases in basic needs and decreases in donations to provide those. Some of the people who used to be donors are now asking for donations…. Nearly 90 percent of Catholic Charities nationwide report more families seeking help, with senior citizens, the middle class and the working poor among those hit hardest by the downturn…. The Salvation Army already has seen between 15 percent and 20 percent more need than last year in its first week of assistance applications received for the holidays…. The Friendship House scaled back the number of families this year allowed into their Adopt-A-Family program to ensure they could fulfill the need.”
  • “Fiscal restraint was the guiding principle in crafting next year’s [Peoria] county budget, which represents a 6 percent overall decrease over last year’s budget. In what is being described as a ‘maintenance budget’ with no new taxes or fees and no spending cuts, preliminary figures show spending requests at nearly $122 million while the county expects to bring in about $119 million in revenues. The approximately $3 million deficit – mostly in the capital fund – will be covered by reserve funds that sit at nearly $74 million, said Erik Bush, Peoria County’s chief financial officer….. The county expects to collect $25.5 million from taxpayers, about $1 million more than what was collected in 2007. Although the tax rate will drop 1 cent to 81 cents per $100 assessed valuation, property values are projected to increase 5.4 percent, so homeowners actually will pay more taxes to the county. The owner of a $120,000 home, whose value increases the projected 5.4 percent will pay $341.50 in taxes to the county, or $13.50 more than last year.”
  • “In total, the city’s staff whittled a $2.2 million budget deficit down to $117,771, an amount that some council members praised. ‘We asked an unbelievable task of our staff,’ Mayor Jim Ardis said. ‘Without cutting any positions or having any tax increase.’ …Finance Director Jim Scroggins said the biggest savings comes from the city’s health care costs, reflected in a substantial difference between the 12 percent budgeted increase for 2008 and the actual increase in health-related costs of only 4 percent…. In addition, the city plans to scale back on parking deck repairs ($300,000), repairs to some of its buildings ($200,000), delay repairs to police headquarters ($25,000), and reduce the neighborhood signs program ($68,662).”
  • “Illinois’ backlog of unpaid bills has hit a record $4 billion, and Comptroller Dan Hynes said Thursday the situation is ‘potentially catastrophic’ if allowed to continue…. Earlier this week, Blagojevich’s office said state revenues will fall $800 million short of projections because of the recession. The Senate Democrats’ top budget person, Sen. Donne Trotter of Chicago, said borrowing money right now may not be a good idea because of interest costs. He said the state should tap into its ‘rainy day’ fund first. Hynes said money in the rainy day fund was used in July. Trotter’s Republican counterpart, Sen. Christine Radogno of Lemont, also didn’t think much of borrowing money. ‘That’s exactly what’s gotten us into this problem,’ Radogno said. ‘Continuing borrowing is not a good idea. They’re going to have to look at making cuts. The wiggle room is gone.'”

It’s time to use all that advertising money to come up with another plan — one that doesn’t involve raising taxes.


Museum Block, before it was turned into a temporary parking lot