Former corrections chief and contractors indicted

BY BETHANY CARSON

Donald Snyder Jr., former director of the Illinois Department of Corrections, was indicted on federal charges of receiving about $50,000 in illegal kickbacks from two lobbyists who represented health-care companies holding large contracts with the state. The indictments stem from a federal investigation, “Operation Safe Road,” that led to the corruption conviction of former Gov. George Ryan. The former governor appointed Snyder, of Pittsfield, to his post that ran from 1999 to 2003.

“As a top state official, Mr. Snyder was bound by various rules governing his acceptance of gifts or favors of any kind,” said U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in a press release. “He was forbidden from receiving cash kickbacks from anyone, much less from lobbyists representing companies doing millions of dollars in business with IDOC.”

Lobbyist John Robinson of Barrington Hills in northern Illinois represented an Illinois-based company that held a multi-million dollar contract with the state to provide health-care services for Illinois inmates. He also is the former Cook County undersheriff. Between 1996 and 2003, he allegedly arranged a contract with the health-care company to receive $2,500 a month in addition to 5 percent of the company’s income from contracts with the Department of Corrections. The indictment says Robinson expected to get an increased payment of $4,500 a month as soon as the health-care company’s state contract exceeded $4 million.

Larry Sims of Pleasant Plains in central Illinois, represented a Pennsylvania health-care company that also held multi-million dollar contracts with the corrections department. He allegedly co-schemed with Snyder and Robinson to file false statements with the state to hide the illegal payments to Snyder.

Snyder and Robinson were each charged with five counts of mail fraud, one carrying a maximum sentence of one year in prison and four others carrying up to 20 years in prison. Sims was charged with one count of perjury for allegedly lying to a grand jury during the investigation, an offense carrying a maximum punishment of five years in prison. The indictment also seeks $50,000 from Snyder. If convicted, all three also could have to pay a $250,000 fine on each count.

Budget negotiation update

BY DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS

Today’s leaders’ meeting focused on spending instead of ways to generate new revenue. There also was talk that electric rate relief may be around the corner.

As far as the budget, there seems to be no visible movement. “Reports that there’s a deal and so forth, that’s erroneous,” Senate President Emil Jones Jr. said.

However, Deputy Governor Shelia Nix said progress has been made, and that next week should be a key week in getting the budget wrapped up by the end of the month.

Sen. Jones said, “The governor had his revenue proposal to drive the budget, and that’s been rejected by the House. We the Senate Democrats put forth our revenue proposal to fund education, to take care of the capital needs of state of Illinois, the House rejected that,”

He also said, “Now perhaps the House will come forth with its revenue measure and maybe the speaker will go ahead and push the income tax.”

In other news, electric rate relief proposal may be in the final stages of completion.

Jones, along with House Speaker Michael Madigan and Attorney General Lisa Madigan has scheduled a fly-around trip to discuss details of a statewide electric rate relief package. “It’s being put together,” Jones said. “It’s not complete as of yet.” However, he did say “the deal is pretty, pretty close.”

The group intends to release the details on Monday said Jones. The trip will begin in Peoria, then to Decatur, Cahokia and end in Marion.

Both chambers will be out for the weekend, the first time since the special sessions began. They’re scheduled to get back to work Monday afternoon.

Transit woes

BY DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS

As the clock ticks toward a possible government shutdown, Sen. Martin Sandoval said Thursday he wouldn’t support a state budget that lacks funding for education and transportation.

“Once again, there needs to be a recognition there is a crisis in Illinois and that service cuts will happen 60 days from today as a result of our inability to fund this priority,” he said during a Statehouse press conference Thursday morning. “I, from my own perspective, will not vote, and cannot, in right conscience, vote on any budget compromise that does not include money for the RTA, CTA, PACE and Metra.”

He joined legislators from both chambers to talk about ways to avoid service reductions in transportation services scheduled to take place in northeastern Illinois as early as September 17.

The CTA plans to eliminate 63 bus routes and two rail lines. Fares also would rise from $2 to $4.25 during rush hour, and workers would be laid off. PACE plans to cut all weekend bus services, all Metra station routes and 23 regional routes for the entire suburban Chicago area. It also would raise fares by 33 percent and reduce transportation for the disabled to the federally-mandated standards.

Rep. Julie Hamos, an Evanston Democrat, said legislators are in the final stages of drafting legislation that would generate additional funding for transit. “The transit system has not been fully supported by the state budget in 24 years,” she said. “This is no time now to take on the responsibility for transit as part of our state budget. What the system does not need is a one-year bailout that would put us back in not only the same place next year, but in an even worse condition.”

Lawmakers propose a regional tax increase and a full range of reforms that would address transit spending and pension system accountability.

So far, legislators have two funding components on the table that include a one-quarter percent sales tax increase for the six counties in northeastern Illinois and a real estate transfer tax in Chicago. Gov. Rod Blagojevich has repeated his campaign promise that he wouldn’t approve any legislation to raise state income or sales taxes. Therefore, if the measure wins the approval of both chambers, lawmakers could override his veto.

Tax talk

It’s almost like we’ve come full circle. The spring session started with momentum behind talk of state tax increases to address funding for education, public employee pensions and health care. But the Statehouse chatter fizzled by the time the General Assembly missed its May 31 deadline to approve a state budget. Now, 48 days later, a couple tax ideas have popped back into summer budget negotiations.

It’s like déjà vu. House Speaker Michael Madigan announced on Chicago talk radio and to the Statehouse press Wednesday that the best way for Gov. Rod Blagojevich to get new revenue is to consider that the majority of House Democrats support some kind of an income tax increase. But Blagojevich has repeatedly and passionately promised to reject an increase in the state income or sales tax. The only possible change is by Senate President Emil Jones Jr., who has sided with the governor since he first proposed the now defunct gross receipts tax on businesses to fund health care. Jones said Wednesday, however, he would consider an income tax increase.

“[HB] 750 had the regressive sales tax, which I strongly oppose,” Jones said after a budget meeting in the governor’s Statehouse office. “But I’m open to the income tax, as well.” (The 750 legislation has long called for an increase in income and sales taxes to reduce property taxes and reform the way the state funds education.) When asked whether he could change the governor’s mind on an income tax increase, Jones said, “The governor was opposed to gaming, and I persuaded him to back off his opposition to gaming. And so if the House passes the income tax as the speaker indicated on WVON, he should go ahead and pass the legislation, and we would give it a strong consideration in the Senate.”

Madigan even made a point to tell the press that he had dinner with Jones Tuesday night in Springfield. “The most significant thing for me coming out of the meeting was that Sen. Jones strongly indicated that he was willing to work with me to finalize the budget for the next fiscal year,” Madigan said. He also said gaming was not in the budget that he was preparing.

But Jones said he wouldn’t accept a budget without gaming expansion unless Madigan came up with an alternative revenue source to fund Jones’ desired $1.5 billion increase in education funding. Jones said other revenue ideas still on the table include the closure of some corporate tax breaks and an alternative minimum tax, which would apply to businesses that make a lot of money but that don’t pay a lot of state taxes. The way to come up with a compromise on alternative revenue ideas, Jones said, was up to the speaker. “Now it’s up to [Madigan] to provide the quality leadership to get additional dollars we need for education — quality leadership.”

Senate Republicans oppose the idea of an income tax increase, according to Sen. Minority Leader Frank Watson. But his caucus’ votes wouldn’t be needed if the Senate Democrats utilized their veto-proof majority of 37 to 22. Over in the House, Republicans would be needed to override to a governor’s veto on an income tax increase.

House Minority Leader Tom Cross wasn’t feeling today’s leaders' meeting as he made an early exit. “We’re having the same discussion that we had in January, February, March, April, May, June, and now July,” he said, raising his voice a little more than normal and seeming more perturbed. “We’ve had a budget process, we’ve had a committee process, we have caucuses, and we hear political rhetoric and political speeches everyday, and it doesn’t bring us any closer to conclusion.”

Poll results favor Illinois Covered
BY DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS
Will the results of a poll released today by Lake Research Partners make some lawmakers change their tune about the governor’s Illinois Covered proposal? One survey question in particular foreshadows campaign season. When asked whether they would be more likely to re-elect their legislator if he or she supported the governor's health insurance plan, out of the 600 likely Illinois voters surveyed, 55 percent said they would. That number breaks down to 67 percent Democrats, 40 percent Republicans and 52 percent Independents.

Participants also were asked whether they would support a plan if it were paid for by an increase in gaming taxes, a tax on employers who don’t offer comprehensive health insurance and an insurance premium based on the ability to pay. Seventy-eight percent were in favor of those three funding sources; 15 percent opposed and 8 percent were undecided.

People also identified that they thought the focus for this summer's special sessions should be health care costs and health care reform (88 percent), education investments and reform (80 percent), improving roads and transportation (65 percent), as well as unfunded state pensions (53 percent).

“The people of Illinois are telling us that health care is their top priority and we cannot let them down,” said Gov. Rod Blagojevich in a press release today. “This year in Illinois, we have a unique opportunity to pass the most comprehensive health care plan in the country that would give every family and small business in our state access to affordable health coverage.”

The poll was sponsored by America’s Agenda Health Care Education Fund, the AARP, the AFL-CIO and the Campaign for Better Health Care. All of those organizations supported Blagojevich’s Illinois Covered plan from the beginning.

Electricity deal could come soon

The Capitol is buzzing about a potential deal on electricity rate relief for Ameren Illinois and Commonwealth Edison customers, who have been paying between an average of 25 percent to 55 percent higher electricity rates since a state law expired January 2.

The general framework of the relief package footed by the power utilities and potentially their parent companies is expected to total about $1 billion — doubling the former proposal — and offer relief for customers over three years, according to Sen. James Clayborne, a Belleville Democrat who’s been following the negotiations. Customers could receive checks for credits as early as two weeks after the agreement were approved by the state legislature and processed through the Illinois Commerce Commission. Another major change could be the creation of an Illinois Power Authority, which I wrote about in our June issue and could procure and generate power for Illinoisans.

We’ve been following the electricity rate debate and private negotiations for months, but Clayborne says, “We’re very, very close,” and, “I think we pretty much have an agreement. Logistically, we have to work out some issues.”

Rep. John Bradley, a Marion Democrat also close to the negotiations, said those details that still have to be ironed out are enough to stop him from screaming from the rooftops that a deal is coming. “The deal isn’t completely done. It’s being finalized. It’s in the final stages, but it’s not completely done.” But he did say he didn’t deny anything Clayborne said or deny that the deal is very close to being turned into legislation for the General Assembly to consider.

Ameren Illinois spokesman Leigh Morris had this to say: “I’m very optimistic that we are going to see a positive resolution to all of this in the very near future.” He added, “We certainly will be making the appropriate announcements to the news media. I think you will hear the thunder of feet running to the Blue Room.” (The Blue Room is in the Statehouse Press Room where people hold press conferences in front of a blue curtain.)

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected to approve an electricity rate relief package that comes his way. “For several months, the governor has urged the legislature to pass a bill that provides consumers significant relief from skyrocketing electric rates,” wrote Blagojevich spokeswoman, Rebecca Rausch, in an e-mail. “We understand negotiators are close to an agreement, and we look forward to reviewing the final product.”

Small group meetings or small progress?
The governor has been in town since Monday, but no official leaders’ meetings have convened. The legislature has broken up into small group meetings so far to discuss gaming, a capital plan, education, revenue, agency spending and the Illinois Department of Corrections. They’re closed to the public.

The governor also sent a letter to House Speaker Michael Madigan, House Minority Leader Tom Cross and Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson criticizing them for halting progress on a proposal to expand gaming, which would pay for the debt service on a capital plan and for education. “Negotiations broke down over your refusal to dedicate some portion of new gaming revenue to education,” the governor wrote. He also said, “A budget that invests in infrastructure without providing resources for education and health care is not an option. We must find a way to meet all of our obligations.”

A leaders’ meeting will convene in the governor’s Capitol office Wednesday afternoon. The Senate Education Committee also is holding multiple-hour hearings every day this week, and many witnesses testify about the impact of the state budget problems on education and its relationship to student achievement. The hearings are a well-organized love fest between educators and some of the lawmakers and won’t result in a vote on legislation.

Other legislative movement
Illinois is on an even playing field with Texas in the final stages of competition for a $1 billion coal gasification plant, which would bring national and international attention to the state, according to sponsors of legislation designed to attract the FutureGen project to Tuscola or Mattoon in central Illinois. The Illinois House approved the incentive package 99 to 0 with one voting present this afternoon. If Illinois were chosen by an international alliance, this state would house the world’s first zero-emissions coal-fired power plant that’s touted to be a cleaner source of energy. It also would be a groundbreaking public-private partnership between local, state, national and international entities, with the added perk of creating a lot of new jobs wherever it lands. The bill has to go back to the Senate for final approval.

The House also “approved” a resolution stating the current governor should stay in Springfield during overtime session. It’s written to identify and pressure Gov. Rod Blagojevich, not future governors. Despite loud “boos” primarily from Democrats, who said the resolution was unfair and presented only for political gain, the resolution was considered approved by a “voice vote.” The measure is nonbinding.

Gov: No gaming without health care

On Tuesday we learned that Gov. Rod Blagojevich was willing to delay his plan to provide health insurance for adults. That would help lawmakers break the deadlock and approve a state budget, he said. On Thursday we learned state lawmakers were considering an expansion of gaming to pay for improvement of roads, bridges and schools. Friday’s developments taught us that the governor won’t sign an expansion of gaming without first having a health care bill approved.

Blagojevich’s point person in the House, Democratic Rep. Jay Hoffman of Chicago, spoke for him after a leaders’ meeting in the governor’s Statehouse office. Hoffman said the governor was willing to scale back his health care plan, but “scale back” doesn’t mean reducing the price. “We’re not talking about scaling back the goals,” Hoffman said. “We’re not talking about scaling back any of the means of providing affordable access to health care for everyone. We would look at taking the employer assessment as well as potentially some other revenue and implementing the health care plan beginning June 1, 2008, and over a four-year period.”

The “employer assessment” is a 3 percent tax on businesses that employ more than 10 people but that don’t offer health insurance for them. That’s still expected to generate about $1 billion, which Hoffman said would be available to help kick start the adult insurance plan in 2008, easing the burden on this year’s state budget. A pilot project isn’t an option, he said. Hoffman mentioned such other revenue sources as consolidating state funds and ending more corporate tax breaks.

But still, as the legislative leaders of both political parties look to fund construction projects through a gaming expansion — however they define expansion — they would have to swallow a health care plan in order to get the governor’s signature. “We would work on the health care piece, which is a prerequisite of signing any gaming bill, from other sources of revenue in the state of Illinois,” Hoffman said.

We also learned Friday that state legislators will have the day off Sunday, July 15, the first day since the governor has ordered them to be in Springfield every day since July 5 to negotiate an already delayed budget. But when lawmakers come back Monday, they’ll have 16 days before the current, one-month budget expires and threatens a state shutdown without another budget in place.

The threat of a state shutdown could be a good thing because it could force a compromise, according to Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson. “There’s just constantly more and more people saying, ‘Why should we vote for another one-month budget?’” he said after the budget meeting. “I’m not for shutting the state government down, but to bring some sort of conclusion to this, some people think that may be the only solution.”

House Speaker Michael Madigan agreed all caucuses want to avoid more 30-day budgets. “Those people probably have not contemplated what they would do if they were a leader and it’s the fifth day of August and paychecks aren’t going out,” he said. “I would hope that the end of the spending authority at the end of the month would move people toward a resolution.”

But he had this damper for people hoping to get that gaming bill: “It’s a very wide-ranging discussion. I wouldn’t put a lot of hope on it.”

Gaming discussed without the governor

The Senate is expected to recast its gaming bill that it originally approved May 31, the last day of the regular session. Now both Democrats and Republicans in that chamber are willing to expand gaming with one new riverboat in Chicago and up to three others anywhere else in the state. Senate President Emil Jones Jr. previously wanted to limit the new boats within certain distances from state borders. Now Rockford, Danville and other areas around Illinois would be able to bid on one of the new gaming licenses.

But there’s a lot of negotiating to be done before lawmakers decide where the boats would go and what the revenue would go toward. Education and major capital projects were the two priorities discussed in a closed-door meeting in the governor’s Statehouse office Thursday, but Gov. Rod Blagojevich wasn’t there. And his beloved health care idea wasn’t talked about.

The governor was in Chicago announcing a new executive order to prohibit insurance companies from basing premium increases on a client’s health status. Blagojevich’s absence changed the tone of the meeting in his office, the lawmakers said. “In fact, I think the governor would be a distraction today based on the feeling about him in this building,” said Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat who recently released his frustrations on the House floor about the governor’s leadership. Thursday’s meeting was more “business-like,” according to Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson.

But the gaming meeting didn’t advance any new legislation, and there's a long way to go. For years, a slew of hang-ups have stymied efforts to expand gaming for state revenue. The horseracing industry wants subsidies from the state so it can compete with expansion of other gaming. But there’s debate about the subsidy level and the mechanism — slots at racetracks or an “impact fee” charged on casinos. And there's a trust issue about whether the state will simply change the law after the first wave of cash flows in, said Rep. Bob Molaro, a Chicago Democrat in the meeting. Other sticking points include the number of new boats and their locations. Lang said in early June that his version of gaming legislation spelled out nine Chicago-area communities in need of economic development that would qualify for one of the new gaming licenses.

Two other complications were raised after the meeting. One was by House Minority Leader Tom Cross of Oswego: “I think for everyone, one of the central questions here is, when would this money become available, assuming you bought into any of these concepts? We’re into July, and to get any of these things up and running, if you bought into that, you’d have to be pretty aggressive [for it] to be in the ’08 fiscal year.”

The other was mentioned by Sen. James DeLeo, another Chicago Democrat in the meeting. The priority of using gaming revenue for road and school construction projects might be more complicated. “We were warned by the budget director that casino revenues, gaming revenues are very hard to sell bonds on,” DeLeo said. “There’s a lot of if, if, ifs in gaming.”

So one of the lingering “ifs” is whether gaming will even appear in the final budget. If you need a refresher, here's where the key players stand on the gaming issue:
- The governor and Jones have said they support four new casinos in the Chicago area, and Jones has said he wants the money to go to education.
- Cross and House Speaker Michael Madigan said their caucuses still support expansion of gaming only at existing casinos, with the money going toward road and school construction projects.
- And Watson said Thursday the Senate GOP Caucus is open and flexible but would prefer the revenue fund a capital program.

Legislators: It's time to 'rock the system'

BY DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS
Bethany Carson contributed to this report
Several legislators are asking Gov. Rod Blagojevich to convene a special session specifically for ethics reform. Today, Sen. Christine Radogno, a Lemont Republican, led the group in an attempt to persuade the governor to add ethics and campaign finance reform to the list of topics to be addressed during this summer’s ongoing special sessions.

Until Wednesday, the special sessions called by the governor have focused on the much-delayed state budget. But Blagojevich Tuesday proclaimed today’s special session to focus on gun control, leading Radogno and Chicago Democratic Rep. John Fritchey to urge the governor to take the same steps to end pay-to-play politics.

"It may not be time to take up contentious legislation, but I'll tell you what, Governor, if you're serious about taking care of unfinished business, I've got a suggestion for you," Fritchey said Tuesday on the House floor. "There's a piece of legislation that's not contentious. There's a piece of legislation that was supported by every member of this chamber, the 117 of us that were there. That was House Bill 1, the bill that will end pay to play."

House Bill 1 is just one of three ethics reform measures stuck in the Senate. It would set a $25,000 limit on how much contractors could give to state officials who received state contracts.

In yesterday's budget talks at the governor’s mansion, Radogno said lawmakers confronted Blagojevich about why the legislature hasn't acted on ethics legislation in any of the special sessions. According to Radogno, the governor said they were going to get to it, that nothing comprehensive was out there and that he called HB 1 "inadequate." Radogno said, "This, mind you, from the same man that told us two years ago that he was going to ‘rock the system,’ He has done absolutely, positively nothing with regards to ethics reform in this state."

Blagojevich did enact an ethics package during his first term that requires all state employees to take an annual ethics exam and that created ethics inspectors general for each executive office.

Radogno went on to say that there are two other measures being held in the Senate rules committee that are comprehensive ethics reform bills. The House also has approved both HB 3 and SB 1305, which have yet to be called for action on the Senate floor.

"We can stay in session for more than 10 minutes to work on this very important topic, and we need to do that," Radogno said.

During the special sessions, the governor has continued to advocate for his proposals to increase education funding and to provide health care for the estimated 1.4 million uninsured Illinoisans. He also wants gun control legislation. However, Fritchey says the most dominant issues in our state and in the headlines hasn't been education funding or gun legislation. "Its scandals and allegations and indictments," he said Tuesday on the floor. "Tell people that when you said you wanted to rock the system, you meant it."

The governor continues to keep his lips sealed about the subpoenas received by his office from federal investigators. As of this posting, the governor's office hasn't responded to our question whether he plans to call a special session for ethics reform.

UPDATE
The governor's call to spend an entire special session on gun control (the eighth special session) backfired Wednesday. One sponsor of the gun control legislation, Chicago Democratic Rep. Harry Osterman, repeated what he's been saying for the past few days: He will not call the legislation for a vote until it has enough votes for approval. That will take 71, to which Osterman said, "This bill will not get 71 votes ... It would be irresponsible of me the sponsor of this legislation to call this bill for a vote, knowing that it's going to fail."

In fact, if the bill is amended to need only 60 votes, as Osterman intends to do, the effective date will be June of 2008. "June of 2008," he repeated on the House floor. "So if passed with 60 votes, it won't take effect until June. So there is no need to rush a vote today or tomorrow."

Osterman will have to work to gain the votes on the controversial measure, but, he said, "Today is not that day. We need to be focused on the budget of our state. That is our collective priority."

House members clapped as he closed his comments.

The governor responded with a letter to House Speaker Michael Madigan that said, "I urge you to convene a Committee of the Whole to limit access to deadly large capacity ammunition clips. Giving the full House an opportunity to hear from law enforcement officials, anti-gun violence advocates and victims’ families will help us move closer to consensus on this important issue." He said he looked forward to working with the sponsor and the speaker's office to get the bill approved.

There was no leaders' meeting today.

No need for Republicans, but what about Democrats?

Despite more lawmakers’ comments that budget talks aren’t getting anywhere, Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced an idea Tuesday night that he thinks could potentially break the nagging budget impasse. But his ideas still require major revenue enhancements, which continue to lack consensus among Democrats, let alone both parties.

Blagojevich isn’t giving up on his beloved universal health care idea or his desired education funding increase — two of many items that have contributed to the gap between his proposed budget and the much smaller version preferred by three of the four legislative leaders. At his Springfield mansion Tuesday night, Blagojevich simply suggested that the education and health care portions of his spending plan be separated from the fiscal year 2008 budget. They would then be packaged with a revenue plan, yet to be determined or agreed upon, and voted on so that the programs would become effective after June 1, 2008. That date is key because it means the legislation creating the programs would only need a simple majority, not the three-fifths majority that currently requires some Republican votes in the House.

Sen. Carol Ronen, a Chicago Democrat and Blagojevich point person in her chamber, stood with the governor after the meeting and said Republicans wouldn’t be needed because a simple majority of Democrats could enact new revenue ideas that would make money available just in time for the programs to start in 2008. But that assumes at least 30 Democrats in the Senate and 60 Democrats in the House would support anywhere from $1 billion to $3 billion in new revenue. That’s not guaranteed. What makes this more questionable is that neither Republicans nor Democrats who support a smaller budget have any incentive to vote for education and health care plans they previously rejected just because the effective date changed.

The only other new information came with the idea that the lawmakers would break away from the rather large budget gatherings in the ballroom of the governor’s mansion and convene in smaller groups, which some GOP members suggested Monday.

Other than that, members said the meeting lacked progress but was full of drama, including the ongoing disagreements about new casinos and horse track subsidies and whether the state should invest in roads and schools before expanding health care and education. And, once again, the governor bashed House Speaker Michael Madigan by saying he hides behind his conservative Republican allies and needs to start acting like a Democrat. Of course, Madigan repeated his criticism of the governor’s “lack of understanding of the severity of the problem, the severity of the gap in understanding between the participants.” He added, “The governor came very close to losing his temper, but I tried to act like a father again. And he made a real nice recovery.”

UPDATE
The House members were told this afternoon that the remainder of July weekend sessions would convene at 9 a.m. Saturdays and 5 p.m. Sundays.

Session on guns called

Gov. Rod Blagojevich ignored the concerns of some lawmakers and legislative leaders by calling a special session Wednesday that will focus on gun control.

Rep. Lou Lang of Skokie and Rep. John Bradley of Marion, both Democrats on opposite sides of the issue, said Monday that the governor’s special session on gun control was meant to further divide lawmakers. They, along with House Speaker Michael Madigan and House Minority Leader Tom Cross, agreed that any special sessions should focus on finalizing a state budget, which has been deadlocked since regular session ended May 31.

The governor’s proclamation made an attempt to tie gun control to the budget by saying the session would “consider and discuss Senate Bill 1007 as well as the impact of assault weapon violence on the state’s health care expenditures and general fiscal health.”

Here’s what we wrote about the legislation May 28:
Ban on some ammunition clips

A proposed ban on ammunition clips that shoot off more than 10 rounds won approval by a House committee. Supporters say the ban would ease the emotional and social costs of losing innocent victims of gun violence, while opponents say it would worsen economic loses when gun manufacturers move to other states. The emotional issue has continued to come up in Illinois since a 1994 federal ban on assault weapons and the high-capacity magazine clips expired. Such opponents as the National Rifle Association and downstate lawmakers trying to protect sport say the legislation is too broad and would ban some firearms without stopping plotted crimes like those at Virginia Tech this spring.

Iron out the differences

Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the four legislative leaders and their caucus members can’t iron out their differences about budget priorities. But after five consecutive days of special sessions, we could start to get a hint soon of where House Speaker Michael Madigan and House Minority Leader Tom Cross think the state should cut funding in the pending state budget.

At least 50 legislators joined the leaders and the governor in budget negotiations at the governor’s mansion again, but some said yesterday’s progress of starting to talk about actual numbers already stalled. “The governor’s position is: He wants health care,” Madigan said Monday evening after the meeting. “That puts us anywhere from $1 to $3 billion apart. There’s no change.”

While everyone agrees the state has a budget deficit, Madigan said Republicans and Democrats agree the budget hole exceeds the governor’s $800 million projection. Madigan also said there was a bipartisan proposal to evaluate the budget line by line to find out where state agencies can cut costs. He said the administration rejected that idea, but Deputy Gov. Sheila Nix said the governor actually welcomes the idea and hopes to see a list of proposed cuts.

Cross said he suggested looking to the 2004 budget. Lawmakers met into mid-July in overtime budget talks, and the state made across-the-board cuts in nonessential services excluding education, public safety and human services. He said that could save $200 to $300 million this time around. He also said more progress would be made in finalizing a budget if negotiations consisted of smaller groups, not the 50-plus groups in the governor’s mansion for the past few days.

Madigan had a more stinging comment about what it would take to make actual progress: “Good leadership. And it’s not here.”

The governor spent the early afternoon at a Chicago press conference about gun control, leading some lawmakers of both parties to speak out in opposition to the potential of the governor proclaiming a special session just to focus on the issue. Downstate and Chicago area lawmakers often have opposite stances on gun control, but two agreed Monday afternoon that the state budget should take precedence in the second month of overtime session and the seventh day of special sessions called by the governor.

“To bring a gun control issue to the floor at this time would only be for the purpose of deflecting our energies and deflecting the media away from what we’re doing here,” said Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat who supports such gun control measures. “I for one believe we should be concentrating on our budget and only on our budget until we get this work done.”

The governor did call a special session for Tuesday afternoon, when the topic will be “supportive living” for the elderly, the poor and the disabled.

Numbers on the table

BY DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS

Finally, there’s a number on the table for the budget. Unfortunately, lawmakers still can’t agree on what the number is.

The budgeteers submitted a report to the governor and the legislative leaders at the leader’s meeting today at the governor’s mansion. Legislators also were invited to attend.

“The report from the budgeteers appeared to be inconclusive,” House Speaker Michael Madigan said. “My expectation is that the governor will continue to work with the budgeteers to make the report more definitive, more concrete, which will better able us to move forward on this budget.”

While budget negotiations appeared to move forward, legislators still aren’t on the same page. “There was a piece of paper with numbers, and the numbers are the numbers, but in terms of the discussion, there was disagreement,” Madigan said.

Sen. Donne Trotter, his chamber’s budget expert, said so far, there’s an $874 million hole in the budget.

“Before we start talking about any kind of growth, we have to first recognize what that hole is and those responsibilities on payments we have to do, pensions and all that,” he said. “There’s certainly no dollars for expansion of education, no expansions for Illinois Covered or any kind of health care. No dollars for constitutional officers, and certainly no dollars for mass transportation, for [the] RTA with the hole.”

Regardless of the discourse in the room, Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson thought today’s meeting was productive. “This is a big first step,” he said.

Tomorrow the House will convene in the afternoon. It’s not clear if the Senate will actually meet. Today, the Senate met for about 10 minutes before adjourning. The House convened a meeting of the whole to hear testimony from the Teachers’ Retirement System that is scheduled to continue on Monday.

A leadership lunch

BY DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS

There wasn’t any progress on the budget at the Capitol today, but lawmakers will be back at it tomorrow.

Today’s special session in the House began with a debate on whether Speaker Michael Madigan was crossing the constitutional line by convening his chamber hours before the time that the governor requested. It ended with Rep. Mike Bost, a Murphysboro Republican, asking what the constitutional grounds for impeachment are. His downstate colleague, Rep. William Black, a Danville Republican, quickly responded that he didn’t think that was the answer to the budget gridlock.

Before the Senate could convene at 2 p.m., pension experts and both chambers were invited to join the leader’s meeting at the governor’s mansion. Guests were served a pasta lunch before beginning a discussion about the state’s public employee pension liability. The media also was invited to the mansion, and was offered beverages, turkey sandwiches and an assortment of cookies while waiting in the downstairs governor's office to hear the outcome of the meeting. Some even had time to take a tour of the mansion.

The governor stepped out of the meeting to share some insight on how the meeting was going. “It’s a healthy, honest discussion, people expressing their views," he said. "It’s a healthy dialogue, it’s all good.”

Yesterday wasn’t as pleasant for the governor, as the House shot down a resolution to lease the Illinois Lottery. While the governor didn’t say he was backing away from his proposal to lease the Lottery for $10 billion and borrow an additional $16 billion to cover the state’s pension obligations, he said he was open to new ideas on how to accomplish that. However, he’s not backing down on providing health care for the state’s uninsured and increasing education funding.

“There’s give and take in this process all the time,” Blagojevich said. “You can’t get a budget without give and take. At the same time, you don’t abandon your principles and your values and your priorities. I’m not going to abandon education, I’m not going to abandon health care. I’m flexible on the means.”

Meanwhile House Speaker Michael Madigan, called on the the governor to reduce the rhetoric, a reference to the governor's’s charge that Madigan has become a conservative Republican.

“I simply call upon the governor to stop the personal insults,” he said. “I simply told him that I don’t think it accomplishes anything to be attacking me personally. It doesn’t help with what we’re trying to do with the budget. It doesn’t help relationships in the Capitol Building. I just hope he takes my advice to heart.”

The Republicans didn’t think much was accomplished today at the leader’s meeting.

“We’ve heard all this before,” House Minority Leader Tom Cross said. “The bottom line is we need a leaders meeting, we need a few people to sit around in a room, take a piece of paper and a pencil and figure out how much money we have and how we’re going to spend it.”

The only agreement in the meeting today was that the budgeteers need to get together tomorrow and follow that up with a leaders meeting said Cross.

The budgeteers are schedule to meet tomorrow at 4 p.m. and a leaders meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Both chambers are scheduled to convene at 4 p.m. as well.

Resolution update

As it stands, the Illinois House doesn’t support the governor’s proposal to lease the Illinois Lottery. On a non-binding resolution, six members voted yes and 78 voted no late this afternoon.

Both chambers will meet over the weekend, as the governor has called another special session.

Mounting frustrations

BY DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS

In the morning, a group of representatives and senators from both sides of the aisle wanted to prevent this summer’s fiasco from happening again. In the afternoon, the governor met with Senate Democrats but continued to blame House Democratic leadership for the fiasco.

Lawmakers are agitated because legislative leaders did not meet yesterday or today to discuss the budget, and they’re ready to take action. “These [special] sessions, when we come to Springfield, should not be a waste of time,” Sen. James Meeks said. Meeks wants the legislative leaders and the governor to meet everyday and address the full General Assembly after each meeting. “We need a full account of what happened at each budget meeting,” he said.

Two separate measures have been introduced in the Senate to address further budget stalemate. If both chambers fail to approve a budget by July 1, SB1848 would allow the state to continue funding its obligations at the level of the previous year until a new budget is approved. The second measure, SB1849 would require the governor and all four legislative leaders to include the members of both chambers in budget negotiations on a daily basis.

The governor and the leaders also would have to share where they stand on any given proposal. Budget proposals would have to be posted on the state government website no later than two days after submission for the public to view, and would have to be physically given to legislators five days before it’s called for a vote.

“We expect more transparency and inclusion in the over all budget process,” Sen. Susan Garrett said. “Especially during special session when the tax-payers are footing the bill of $36,000 a day.”

It just so happens the Senate Democrats got their wish, because after both chambers recessed, the governor met with the Senate Democrats in President Emil Jones’ office to discuss funding for education and healthcare. But he was still focused on blaming House leadership for the special session.

“The reason we’re in overtime and special session is because the Democratic Speaker of the House Mr. Madigan has formed a coalition, an alliance, with the conservative Republican leader of the Senate,” Blagojevich said. “The way to be able to finally get budgets that achieve the objectives of healthcare and education for families is to get Mr. Madigan to be a Democrat again and stop being a George Bush Republican.”

The governor also said he is not leaning toward any single solution, but he's determined to make sure increasing education funding and healthcare is a part of the budget.

So far, the House and the Senate is scheduled to meet over the weekend. Stay tuned for more updates to see if the non-binding resolution on whether to support selling the Lottery is called for a vote later today.

Many questions, few answers

BY BETHANY CARSON AND DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS
Even with no testimony from Gov. Rod Blagojevich and with few details provided on privatizing the state lottery, Illinois lawmakers could vote Friday on whether to give the governor authorization to do two things: 1) lease the lottery to a private firm for at least $10 billion and 2) issue $16 billion in bonds. Both are tactics to reduce state debt in the public employee pension systems.

Hours of testimony in a special House committee and in a separate Senate committee provided few answers for some of the biggest questions. For instance, many asked how much revenue the state would share with a private operator, as well as how the state would compensate for revenue lost by leasing the state asset. Lawmakers also expressed skepticism because only a handful of states are considering privatizing their lotteries, but none have actually done it.

“Do we want to be first, or maybe we’d be better off second or third?” said Sen. Terry Link, a Waukegan Democrat, during the Senate committee.

Mark Florian, marketing director for Goldman, Sachs & Co., which is advising the governor’s office on the deal and stands to profit if the deal goes through, said the size of Illinois’ lottery makes this state a potential frontrunner. “People are going to stretch and stretch very, very hard [so] that there will be a premium, a trophy premium, to have access to this lottery system,” he told the committee. The Blagojevich Administration often cites estimated revenue at about $10 billion.

That’s exactly why some lawmakers questioned why the state would want to lease the lottery if it has so much potential for revenue growth, which would put more money into the state’s education system.

Some of the same questions came up during about 6 hours of questioning by a special committee of the entire House, in which the governor was invited to participate but declined. “I must confess that I believe you are more interested in playing games and taking solutions off the table than trying to find solutions to solve real problems,” he wrote in a letter to House Speaker Michael Madigan that was shared with legislators and the media. A series of rather snippy letters have been exchanged between the speaker and the governor this week, continuing the gridlock that led Blagojevich to convene a special session seven days a week until a full state budget comes to fruition.

“If the governor believes this is a waste of time, I think that’s pathetic,” said Rep. Jack Franks after the House committee. The Woodstock Democrat came up with the idea to invite the governor to the committee of the entire chamber and led Thursday’s hearing. “I think it’s cowardly for him not to have been here after calling the [special] session.”

At the end of the business day, the House moved three pieces of legislation, one proposing the lease of the Illinois Lottery, one proposing the issuance of pension bonds and one nonbinding resolution urging the General Assembly to resolve pension reform and debt before the legislative session adjourns for good in 2007.

Tom Johnson, president of the Taxpayers’ Federation of Illinois, said the administration was putting the cart before the horse because the lottery proposal comes up with a funding mechanism for state pension obligations before it addresses mounting pension liabilities. He said a better plan would evaluate the expense of the benefits offered as a way to cut costs. “The lottery is the taxpayers’ asset,” Johnson said. “The [pension obligation bond] debt will be the taxpayers’ debt.”

John Filan, chief operating officer, said with $41 billion in debt, “all solutions will be expensive, very expensive, and require major revenues.” When asked whether the governor’s initial gross receipts tax proposal was still on the table, Filan didn’t answer yes or no. He simply said the administration would consider other forms of business taxes, such as ending some corporate tax breaks.

The governor is not expected to appear before the House Friday, either.

Touché

\House Speaker Michael Madigan has challenged the governor to produce major budget legislation that will be debated and immediately voted on Thursday afternoon, the first day of a “special session” proclaimed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich last week.

The governor said Friday that the General Assembly would remain in special session until it approved an overdue state budget for the fiscal year that started July 1. He said the first topic of discussion would be state public employee pension reform.

In a letter addressed to the governor and copied to the House members and the media Monday, Madigan and Rep. Jack Franks challenged Blagojevich to detail his proposal to lease the Illinois Lottery as a way to pump billions of dollars into the five public employee pension systems, which have been under-funded for years. Then Madigan plans for the chamber to vote on the proposal, giving the governor a deadline to produce the legislation.

Part of the letter to Blagojevich reads, “It is, therefore, your responsibility to have the necessary legislation drafted and submitted to us in a timely fashion — no later than 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 5.”

Another part of the letter rebuts the governor’s public criticism of the lawmakers’ three-day workweek and lack of focus on the budget. It says the Committee of the Whole format would allow maximum participation and media observance, another comment reportedly made by the governor during backdoor budget meetings. The letter goes on to call the governor out on alleged hypocrisy.

“Over the last six months, from the moment our members took office for the 95th General Assembly, and despite your general absence from the State Capitol during most of that time, they have remained ready and available to work with you for the purposes of crafting a fiscal year 2008 budget,” the letter reads.

Franks, a Woodstock Democrat who often vocally disagrees with the governor’s ideas, said he brought up the idea to the speaker after a month of overtime session and closed-door “negotiations” produced nothing but a one-month, bare bones budget. On his cell phone Monday afternoon, Franks said, “Why don’t we try something different? Why don’t we make a transparent process, put it on the House floor, bring the governor in, make him produce bills, let him defend those bills, and then we will vote on them after the legislature has a chance to ask questions?”

Franks held a committee about leasing the Illinois Lottery earlier this spring and said the administration didn’t provide many details back then. “Whenever you have $10 billion on the table. Your antenna’s going to go up,” Franks said. “From what I’ve seen on the merits of the proposal, it doesn’t hold water." Madigan said last month he didn’t think the idea had enough support in his chamber.

If the governor accepts the invitation — we haven’t heard from the governor’s office, yet — the letter says the Committee of the Whole will “last as long as necessary.”

UPDATE
Response from the governor's office: "This is exactly the kind of dialogue and direct involvement from legislators we were hoping for by calling special sessions," Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said in an e-mail.

Surprise: Special session

BY DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS

To the surprise of all four legislative leaders, the governor has called a special session scheduled to begin July 5th. Though the leaders came to an earlier agreement that both chambers would take next week off to celebrate the July 4th holiday, the governor said it would be more patriotic to spend the holiday week working on a budget.

“Now it’s time for us to get the real business of the people done,” he said. “It’s time for us to finish a budget that isn’t just a one-month, stopgap emergency budget.”

He said legislators will meet every day, including weekends, until they can agree on a budget that addresses unfunded pension liability, education funding and health care. He went on to say that the emergency budget was necessary to keep the government running; however, “It’s just a Republican budget in disguise.”

He also called Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson, “the conservative Republican ally” of House Speaker Michael Madigan, quoting comments that they wouldn’t support any new revenue.

Ending his meeting with the media, the governor did promise to sign the temporary budget that won the approval of both chambers. Needless to say, leaders were shocked a new schedule was dropped on them at the last minute, but they were willing to work.

Now that there’s a special session, legislators will receive a per diem to cover the cost of their stay in Springfield. “We call it a teacher a day,” Watson said. “$40,000 is about what you spend on a special session.”

The governor’s last words were the legislators could forfeit their per diem if they were worried about keeping costs down.

"Things are really in the toilet at work"

I thought Sen. Donne Trotter of Chicago was ad-libbing when the Senate was about to approve an emergency, one-month budget Friday morning, but he wasn’t. On the Senate floor, he read his actual horoscope published in today’s Chicago Sun-Times:

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): … “You can’t expect things to run smoothly right now. There are glitches, delays, confused communications and short tempers. Things are really in the toilet at work. Just take it all one minute at a time. That’s all you can ever do anyway.”

Everyone cracked up, not just because Trotter said “toilet” on the Senate floor, but because the horoscope couldn’t paint a more accurate picture of the “glitches, delays, confused communications and short tempers” that plague the four legislative leaders and the governor in their drawn out process of crafting an FY08 budget. They were supposed to have one in place by May 31.

Senate Republicans made sure to highlight leadership problems during floor debate. Sen. Kirk Dillard, a Hinsdale Republican, said there’s only one difference between the “personality politics” in today’s one-party, Democratic rule and the one-party, Republican rule in 1994: “We had an engaged governor in Jim Edgar, who was here every day, who managed state government well.”

Dillard served as Edgar’s chief of staff. Dillard continued, “We don’t need to pass a resolution like the House did to remind the governor that he needs to be in Springfield working with our four legislative leaders, especially the two gentlemen from his own political party.” But Dillard voted in favor of the emergency budget to prevent state services and payrolls from shutting down because no budget was in place before the new fiscal year starts July 1.

Freshman Sen. Matt Murphy, a Palatine Republican, told his fellow senators that the budget-setting process has been an “utter embarrassment” and that they should take a stronger stance. “You should oppose this bill and force the leaders out of their entrenched corners, into the middle where common ground can be reached. Extending this one month does nothing more than provide cover for the people who need to check their egos at the door and get something done for the people of the state of Illinois on a long-term basis.”

He voted to reject the one-month budget with five other Republican senators: Bill Brady of Bloomington, Dan Cronin of Elmhurst, Randy Hultgren of Winfield, Carole Pankau of Roselle and Dave Syverson of Rockford.

The only Democrat to vote against the measure was Sen. Martin Sandoval of Chicago. He said he wouldn’t vote for a budget that fails to fund school construction and mass transportation but that continues to pay chauffeurs who drive department heads to meetings and pilots who fly the governor between Chicago and Springfield. “We have condoned his behavior,” Sandoval said. “You will have financed the friendly skies of Illinois that Gov. Rod Balgojevich flies day in and day out in the month of July.”

Then he spoke directly to Senate President Emil Jones Jr. “President Jones, I know you don’t like this budget. I see it in your eyes. I see it in the tone and the texture of your face. And you know what, President Jones, I don’t either … I cannot and will not support this or any other no-growth budget that perpetuates the ongoing government shutdowns of the status quo in my community and in other communities from Cairo to Chicago. No schools, no buses, no tax relief, no growth, no vote. Have a great Fourth of July and keep on fighting.”

Both chambers are scheduled to come back to Springfield Tuesday, July 10, starting another full month of overtime session. (The Senate’s schedule isn’t online, yet, but they’re in session every weekday starting July 10, including the last Saturday and Sunday in July).

Moving right along, for now

It only took eight minutes for a Senate committee to discuss and approve the one-month budget that’s expected to prevent the state from shutting down in July. No one on the committee voted against the stopgap measure. The full Senate is expected to approve it Friday.

Although a 12-month budget is far from a done deal, Sen. Christine Radogno, a GOP budget negotiator, said she felt encouraged by the one-month budget because 1) it fully funds pension payments at the statutory level, 2) it fully funds state debt service, 3) it’s void of “pork barrel” funding for legislators’ pet projects and 4) it holds the line on spending. She says those four things prove “we can live within our means even if it’s one month at a time.”

Let’s hope it won’t take a month at a time to keep the state in business, but one ominous sign is that the Senate extended all deadlines for the passage of bills until December 31. Sheesh. That’s extremely cautious and totally unnecessary, right? Right?!

House approves a stopgap measure

The House has now passed two budgets, the first, of course, held hostage until electric rate relief is figured out with utilities. The one-month budget approved by the House this evening keeps the 2007 level of funding for most state operations, except pension and debt payments are a bit higher to meet the prescribed fiscal year 2008 levels.

“If we don’t take some action to authorize the comptroller to continue paying bills, starting Monday when that office opens up, the state will slowly begin to grind to a halt,” said Rep. Gary Hannig, the Litchfield Democrat and budget negotiator, during a House committee earlier Wednesday. “So the four leaders and the governor were able to come to an agreement, at least on this issue, on a method to keep state government open for an additional 31 days.”

House Republican Leader Tom Cross used the one-month budget as an opportunity to blame Democrats, who control both chambers and all state executive offices, for still being unable to draft an agreed budget a month after the constitutional deadline. “All 67 of you, on your side of the aisle, all 67 of you are responsible for the failure of not passing a budget in time for the people of the state of Illinois,” he said during House floor debate this evening. He added all state lawmakers have to accept the state has less than $800 million in new revenue to balance the budget, and they can’t get everything they want.

Rep. Jack Franks, a Democrat Woodstock who frequently clashes with Gov. Rod Blagojevich, said the temporary budget simply defers tough choices. He was one of three representatives, the others Republicans, to reject the emergency budget.

Rep. Bill Black, a Danville Republican, said the next pressure point is August, when the state has to make its first payments of fiscal year ’08 to elementary and secondary education systems. He said he and other Republicans would approve the one-month budget as a stopgap measure to keep the state operating through July, but he added, “Don’t count on it in August.”

If all goes as planned, the measure moves to the Senate right away so that chamber can abide by the rules and read it on three different days before approving it and sending it to the governor Friday, the last business day of fiscal year ’07.

State rep. reenlists in the Reserves

A lasting sense of duty moved State Rep. Jim Watson, a Jacksonville Republican, to reenlist in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves.

He says he increasingly felt the need to do more as his former civil service unit based in Camp Pendleton, Calif., was called to its third tour of duty in the Middle East. “I don’t think we can sit back and let the same guys carry the water over and over and over,” he says.

He’s committed to one year. Starting in July, he’ll attend drill one weekend a month at Camp Pendleton. He served as a U.S. Marine Corps and Marine Corps Reserves from 1985 to 1991, including one year in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm. If his unit were mobilized back to the Middle East, he says he would be in a combat environment teaching local officials how to run their government, setting up the hospitals or trying to rebuild the infrastructure for an education system.

In the rare event that an Illinois lawmaker would go to war while serving the state, Watson says his constituent services would continue with the help of his fellow lawmakers, Sen. Deanna Demuzio, a Carlinville Democrat, and Rep. Gary Hannig, a Litchfield Democrat.

He says his inner belief in the importance of the overseas effort leads him to rejoin the other service men and women making sacrifices and offering their skills in a time of need. “If we don’t clean this thing up, we’re going to leave just one more mess for future generations, for my kids, to deal with,” he says.

He’s been serving as state legislator since 2001.

One-month budget by Friday

BY BETHANY CARSON and DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS
Whatever needed to be worked out among the Republican and Democratic caucuses of each chamber appears to be worked out. At least, there’s enough of an agreement for the legislative leaders to publicly say that the House is expected to approve it Wednesday and the Senate to consider it Friday.

The summary from House Speaker Michael Madigan and House Minority Leader Tom Cross: It’s a maintenance budget that simply extends the fiscal year 2007 budget with some changes. But it has no new revenue and no “member initiatives,” or “pork barrel spending” that pays for special projects in legislators’ districts.

Next on the discussion table: new revenue to support a full, 12-month state budget. “We haven’t had a discussion on available revenue,” Cross said outside of the governor’s Capitol office Tuesday afternoon, “and we had no discussion about electricity.”

Electric rate freeze action is still possible in the next couple of days — Senate President Emil Jones Jr. said he’s just about fed up. “I resent all the stalling that’s been taking place as it relates to those negotiations,” he said after budget talks. “We may, even though I’m opposed to it, let them go ahead and have the freeze.”

He said he could call the measure as early as Wednesday once he talks to his members. He added that after several meetings to discuss rate relief, the people who advocated for extending a 10-year rate freeze that expired in January are suddenly starting to change their minds. “Now they’re saying exactly what I’ve been telling them all along: The freeze does not solve the problem,” Jones said. “But now they’re throwing different things into play, so therefore, maybe I’ll go ahead and let [Sen. Gary Forby] call the freeze. I’ll find out tomorrow.”

Recap:
- The House is expected to vote on the one-month budget Wednesday, adjourn Friday and come back for more overtime session the second week of July.
- The Senate will get the budget and have to follow the rules to hear it three times before they can consider it for good on Friday.
- Senate President Emil Jones may let his chamber debate an electricity rate freeze, depending on how his caucus feels about it Wednesday morning.
- The next leaders’ meeting, whenever it’s scheduled, could likely talk about revenue ideas.

Rep. Froehlich changes from an R to a D
State Rep. Paul Froehlich of Schaumburg will join the Democrats Wednesday after considering himself a “lifelong Republican,” according to a press release. He served as Schaumburg Township Republican Committeeman since 1998, so he’s also resigning from that panel.

“I became a Republican because the party permitted a broad range of views and welcomed moderates with open arms,” he said in the release. “Over the last six years, that has changed. I, however, have not. The same beliefs I held last week, I hold today.” He said he thought he could best serve his constituents as a Democrat, and his constituents in the northwest suburbs of Chicago are leaning more Democratic these days.

House Minority Leader Tom Cross said he’s unhappy about Froehlich’s switch, but there’s nothing he can do about it. “This is a guy that decided that he wanted to do what was best for him, unfortunately at the expense, perhaps, of his constituents,” Cross said before entering the governor’s office for budget talks Tuesday. “I’m not going to comment on what he did or didn’t do. I think he did what was best for his own political future.”

After budget talks, Cross said he’s likely to target Froehlich in the fall election campaigns, “just like I will in all the races where I think that we have a chance, and clearly I think we have a chance there. He will be on a list with others [where] we think we can have success in the fall of ’08.”

House Speaker Michael Madigan said he did not recruit Froehlich, who supported another Schaumburg official, now state Rep. Fred Crespo. He won a seat on a local board with Republican support but ran as a Democrat to win a House district seat last fall.

Q&A: Alan Ehrehnalt

The executive editor of Governing, a monthly magazine that covers state and local government and is published by Congressional Quarterly, since 1991. Ehrenhalt has nearly 40 years of journalism experience ranging from working as a Chicago reporter for The Associated Press to writing three books: The Lost City, the United States of Ambition and Democracy in the Mirror. He’s also a regular contributor to the New York Times Book Review and Washington Post Book World, as well as the Wall Street Journal.

He grew up on Chicago’s South Side and graduated from the University of Chicago High School. He earned his bachelor’s in psychology from Brandeis University and his master’s in journalism from Columbia University. He became a Neiman Fellow at Harvard University and had a few academic appointments before his current position as senior fellow at the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies.

He presented “The States in the 21st Century” for a forum on state government and citizen participation hosted by the University of Illinois at Springfield June 20 and sponsored by the Center for State Policy and Leadership, the College of Public Affairs and Administration and Public Radio WUIS 91.9 FM.

The Center’s Richard Schuldt, director of the Survey Research Office of the Center for State Policy and Leadership, presented results of a recent project, “Citizen Views of State Government: New Survey Findings from Illinois,” showing Illinoisans’ general dissatisfaction with their state government and their own participation in policy issues important to them.

Maybe the reason is Illinois isn’t even covering the basics, while other states are coming up with public policy innovations. Ehrenhalt shared his thoughts about Illinois compared to other states during a phone interview with Bethany Carson June 21. This is an edited version of that conversation:

Q: What makes Illinois’ fiscal situation one of the worst in the nation?
A: No. 1, Illinois has not handled its [public employee] pension responsibilities very well. As has been documented before, Illinois has chosen to have fairly generous pensions but not to fund them in an actuarially sound way. And the Government Accounting Standards Board is now requiring a much more thorough accounting of future, not only pension, but other retiree benefits. And when those numbers come in, some states are really showing to be doing badly. New Jersey is the other one that’s been very irresponsible.

Also, Illinois has had worse Medicaid problems than other states. And I’m not sure entirely what’s behind that, but Illinois for the last 20 years has been in more trouble in Medicaid than almost any other state.

Q: How bad compared to other states?
A: It’s hard to quantify, but on Medicaid, I only know that Illinois’ problems are among the most serious. And on pension liabilities, Illinois is in as serious trouble as any other states, maybe more. New Jersey would be the other one.

You know, this is what brought the city of San Diego down a couple of years ago. They were granting public unions generous pensions, and then they were not funding them because the debts were in the future. And they thought they could get away with it.

It is a technique that a couple of states have resorted to. And [Gov. Rod] Blagojevich did this. You borrow money against future assets in order to meet your immediate needs and not worry about what happens when the balloon payment has to be made. Christine Todd Whitman did that in New Jersey.

Q: If you’re borrowing money now and not worrying about the balloon payments later because it will be in another administration, what does that suggest?
A: It suggests bad leadership. It suggests perhaps attention deficit disorder, or worse, it suggests an attempt to push the problems off on somebody else. Let’s face it. We all like to do that. We all like to live well today and let somebody else worry about it tomorrow, but when a state consistently does that, that’s not good.

What it requires to deal with these problems is a strong governor and a legislature willing to work with him. Normally that means one party, but here you have one party and it isn’t doing any good. Sometimes it doesn’t mean that. California and Florida, and I would also say Pennsylvania, are examples of states where strong governors have been able to reach out to the other party and solve some problems, not to say California doesn’t still have serious pension problems. But it has a working majority. The irony is that it’s the governor and the Democratic Party, and the governor’s own Republican Party is essentially shut out.

Q: Our problems have compounded over many years, but how much does the leadership by the governor and the legislative leaders contribute to our current budget situation? Is it a symptom of a bigger problem?
A: It’s a symptom of a problem that, like many other structural deficit problem, festers, and if it’s not attended to, becomes acute. And I think that is what Illinois needs to worry about.

He asked why Blagojevich proposed the gross receipts tax. I said the governor promised in his campaigns not to raise income or sales taxes, pinning himself in a corner.

A: That gets to the problems that lots of governors have, making promises in their campaigns that tie them up later. The more prudent governors don’t promise things that they can’t deliver on or don’t promise things that make it difficult for them to accomplish their agendas.

Putting Illinois’ finances in order would be as great an accomplishment if not greater than passage of some of the programs that Blagojevich would like to pass. And since they’re not passing anyway, it would make a great deal of sense to deal with the structural budget gaps.

Mark Warner [a Democrat] did it in Virginia with Republican help. They had a rather serious fiscal crisis brought on by the previous governor’s campaign promise to eliminate the tax on automobiles. Warner came in, and Virginia really did have a serious structural problem. He split the Republicans, formed a coalition of moderate Republicans and his own Democratic Party and got the tax reform plan that he wanted. And the state’s in much better shape now. So it’s not impossible. It’s more difficult in some places than others.

I think a lot of it is it makes a big difference in whom you elect and re-elect. Unfortunately [in Illinois], the Democrats coming in after 26 years out of power elected a good campaigner who really didn’t have a very sustained interest in governing and in many ways showed contempt for the legislature rather than working with them.

Q: Is there anything that you think makes Illinois unique?
A: To the extent that states have been a source of innovation and creativity in the last 20 years, Illinois has not really participated in that to the extent that you would think it might. You think about welfare, Tommy Thompson; reorganizing government, John Engler in Michigan; Schwarzenegger and environmental issues; Eliot Spitzer in New York as attorney general, but nevertheless, really changing the role of the attorney general. And I can name others. In Illinois, I suppose most people would say that you would have to go back to Jim Thompson to find a governor and a legislature working together and providing some innovative government.

Although, George Ryan’s Build Illinois was a rather ambitious program. I certainly would give Ryan credit for that. If you throw out the scandal, you could make a decent case that he was a good governor.

Q: It’s interesting to think about how the current governor, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, will be perceived down the road.
A: If things don’t change, I would say not very well.

As Ehrenhalt and I talked, the governor and the top four legislative leaders, Republicans and Democrats, were negotiating a one-month budget in hopes of buying some time to come up with a 12-month spending plan. We’ll know next week whether that will happen to prevent a shutdown of state services when the new fiscal year starts July 1.

We're in business for one more month

Budget staffs of all four Democratic and Republican leaders and the governor’s office are working throughout the weekend to craft a one-month budget, potentially avoiding a state government shutdown when the new fiscal year starts July 1. They did the same thing in 2004. It also buys some time for the leaders to agree on a full, 12-month budget.

“Today, we actually made a little bit of progress,” said Gov. Rod Blagojevich, in person, in front of his Statehouse office, standing next to Senate President Emil Jones Jr. “We actually finally agreed on something, and the agreement was that we have a lot of work to do.”

But he still bashed House Speaker Michael Madigan’s limited-growth budget approved by his chamber last month, which the governor said is now dead because a majority of Senators rejected it in a non-binding resolution Wednesday. And nearly two-dozen House Democrats signed a letter to indicate that they were willing to negotiate on Madigan’s budget, too.

Blagojevich said, “We’re back to square one,” and quoted Winston Churchill. “This is not the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning. And it is a new opportunity to begin anew and begin fresh.”

He might even be willing to talk about a budget that wouldn’t rely on a gross receipts tax for major revenue, according to Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson after the budget meeting. “He didn’t say it is off the table, but he said we’re going to proceed ahead without the gross receipts tax,” Watson said. “I think that’s a significant step for him.” Watson also said, “I think we made progress today, first time, that we really kind of talked about a budget that might have some light at the end of the tunnel.”

The leaders aren’t exactly holding hands and singing “Cum Ba Ya,” however. Madigan said there’s “a five-way agreement in concept” to enact a temporary budget, but “there are items to be negotiated.”

Hey, it’s a start. And FYI, when the leaders went around the room to state their priorities for this “clean slate” budget, here’s what they reportedly said:
Blagojevich — affordable health insurance for all
Jones — education
Madigan — a “workable” budget
Watson — to “live within in our means and pay our bills”
Cross — unfunded pension liability and an infrastructure program

The chambers are out until Tuesday, when we hope to see more progress!

What is on the table?

BY DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS
The Senate approved a nonbinding resolution to reject the House’s limited-growth budget approved late last month. It mirrored the move earlier this spring by the House to shoot down the governor’s gross receipt tax proposal.

Thirty-four Senate members voted to reject the House budget; 19 voted “in favor” of it or, at least, against using a resolution to combat the other chamber; and two voted present. (The record only shows 33 “yes” votes, but Sen. Kimberly Lightford did vote “yes,” making the 34th vote.)

Sen. Donne Trotter, a Chicago Democrat, called for the resolution, urging his chamber not to consider House Speaker Michael Madigan’s budget. “Overall, SB 1132 as amended by the House does not provide the resources necessary to serve the citizens of Illinois, including students, veterans and all citizens served by a public safety program and agencies.”

GOP budget negotiator Sen. Christine Radogno questioned the sincerity of the Senate Democrats to come to a budget agreement. The Lemont Republican wanted to know why Trotter wasn’t using three empty budget bills that were approved by a Senate committee last week. They’re essentially placeholders so the chamber can drop in budget details later and move it through the legislative process.

“We’re wasting a lot of time on a resolution that’s absolutely meaningless in terms of resolving this [budget] process, ultimately,” she said. “We’re wasting time by being here. We’re wasting a lot of money. We’re continuing with the scam of the leaders’ meetings that are really not producing any results whatsoever, and now we’re trying to enter into this game of bouncing resolutions back and forth between the chambers.”

For others, voting to reject the House budget was taking a stand against cutting programs for children, veterans and the needy. “What would you have us to do? Just lay down for Mike Madigan?” said Sen. Rickey Hendon, a Chicago Democrat. “We’re not a rubber stamp for the other chamber. We are the upper chamber. We’re the House of Lords. They’re the House of Commons. We shall not be led by the House of Commons.”

Senate President Emil Jones Jr. also sent a message to the House. “The purpose of this resolution is to send a clear signal that we should be in very serious, serious negotiations,” he said.

The limited-growth budget never made it over to the Senate for a vote because of an electric-rate standoff started by a group of Downstate House Dems. The move was meant to call attention to the need to address the electric-rate hikes before the onset of the summer.

While the House didn’t respond too kindly to the Senate’s comments, Gov. Rod Blagojevich praised the resolution.

Big picture by Bethany: Ten days left before the fiscal year ends and a state shutdown looms, here’s where we stand: The governor and the Senate reject the House budget. The House rejects the governor’s plans. And people involved in electricity rate negotiations still say “substantial progress” is being made and that something is close. In other words, nothing concrete is on the table. And the Senate isn’t back in town until Tuesday, while the House is still scheduled for Thursday and Monday.

UPDATE No progress was made in the afternoon leaders' meeting. House Minority Leader Tom Cross didn't hide his frustration, calling the process "rather embarrassing and a bit disgusting." The only thing discussed in the "show-and-tell meeting" was TIF districts in Chicago with no attempt to relate that issue to the state budget, said House Speaker Michael Madigan. The governor didn't even send his spokespeople out to make comments after the meeting.

Regarding the Senate's symbolic rejection of the House limited-growth budget, Madigan said, “I find it very curious. I note that it did not get 36 votes. It appears to me that certain people are grasping at straws in terms of what they perceive to be a budget debate. And I would say again, only one chamber has passed a budget. That is the House.”

Do you want to get paid?

About 4,900 state employees would start missing paychecks July 9 if the top lawmakers can’t agree on a state budget before the new fiscal year starts July 1. That’s the first symptom of a government “shutdown” outlined in this report released Monday by Comptroller Dan Hynes’ office.

“A fiscal meltdown would begin on July 9, and a full-blown crisis would ensue, by any standard, toward the middle of July,” wrote Rick Cornell, assistant comptroller for fiscal policy, in the memo.

Employees of the constitutional offices would be the first to get delayed paychecks. Agency workers who get paid later in the month, such as Department of Corrections and Human Services staffers, would start missing paydays without a budget in place July 25. (State university payrolls would be on a case-by-case basis.) But all employees eventually would get their checks. “If you work, you get paid,” said Carol Knowles, spokeswoman for the comptroller’s office. “It’s not a question of there not being money.” It’s a matter of the comptroller’s office having the authority to collect information from all the state agencies and to write the checks.

In addition, the state wouldn’t have the spending authority to pay doctors and nursing homes waiting for Medicaid reimbursements. That includes the medical providers who signed up for Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s All Kids health insurance program, which guaranteed payment within 30 days.

Some payments are court-ordered, including money for food stamps, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and aid for the elderly, blind and disabled. State retirement benefits, state income tax refunds and state debt also would have to be paid regardless of a shutdown.

Knowles said the spending authority, even if it's in the form of a month-long temporary budget, could be approved as late as July 9 for the first round of FY08 checks to be sent out by July 13. “To absolutely avoid any delays,” however, she said, “it would be helpful to have it in place by June 29th.”

The House is scheduled to be in session the last full week of June, but for better or worse, the chamber cancelled Tuesday’s session. A spokeswoman for the Senate Democrats said that chamber will be in session Tuesday, and Senate President Emil Jones plans to attend a leaders’ meeting in the afternoon.

"Substantial progress"

BY BETHANY CARSON AND DEANESE WILLIAMS-HARRIS
Repeat after me: “We made substantial progress.” Every person who emerged from today’s meeting between state lawmakers the electric utilities in Senate President Emil Jones’ office said the same thing, ensuring that we’ll see those words in headlines across the state Friday. But no one said what that progress entailed.

Those words and the meeting are significant not just because they sidelined the scheduled budget meeting that didn’t happen in Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s office this morning, but because they could weave together a state budget or pull the loose threat to unravel it. Remember that the House-approved minimal-growth budget has been held hostage until skyrocketing electricity rates are addressed. It’s hard to suppress the excitement that something could actually happen soon. If an electricity agreement is close, then would House Speaker Michael Madigan release the minimum-growth budget to the Senate? Would it have a chance in that chamber even though Jones has repeatedly said it’s unbalanced and would cut services for children?

Consider the setup: The so-called rate-freeze bill, HB 1750, that would roll back rates, freeze them for three years and reimburse customers for the high rates since January. It’s on the final passage stage in the Senate. And the Senate is scheduled to be in session Friday. And that chamber is prepping some “shell bills” that don’t have any language now but will become the measures containing a state budget later.

The House left Springfield until Tuesday, but not before Madigan sent a few messages plucking one more item from the Team Blagojevich-Jones wish list. First, Madigan released a letter indicating he’s sticking to his guns on the minimal-growth budget. Then a House committee rejected the Blagojevich-Jones gaming expansion that includes four new casinos in the Chicago region.

Rep. Lou Lang, the Skokie Democrat who heads many of the House gaming efforts, said HB 25 as amended by the Senate wasn’t cutting it. He doesn’t like the Senate’s criteria for the potential locations of the boats, and he thinks there’s insufficient aid for the racetracks and supporting agribusinesses. But he’s not giving up on gaming as a piece of budget negotiations. “Whether you have a budget problem or not, it’s hard to turn down [20,000] or [30,000] or 40,000 new jobs, a lot of construction and $2 or $3 billion a year. That having been said, we do have a budget problem in the state of Illinois, and I will leverage that if I need to move this ball forward.”

Let’s recap
- The House, Senate and governor’s office are still on opposite sides of the minimal-growth budget that passed the House. But it still has life as a viable safety measure if everything else implodes.
- They still differ on the extent of which gaming should expand: Madigan and the Republicans favor allowing existing riverboats to expand, while Team Blagojevich-Jones support the four-new-casino deal.
- Madigan and the governor differ on how the Chicago Transportation Authority can overcome a massive budget hole. Blagojevich wants to use corporate tax break closures to help out mass transit, while Madigan favors a regional sales tax increase proposal.
- One agreed revenue idea is the $300 million closure of corporate tax breaks.

So we’ve got potential electricity relief, potential gaming expansion and potential “corporate tax break closing” revenue. It doesn’t quite add up to a budget, yet, but we’re encouraged by the veering from the path Blagojevich was leading us down with daily seminars that leaders repeatedly said weren’t advancing budget negotiations.

"Closing in on a collision"

Scratch the Illinois Lottery off the list of major revenue ideas, said House Speaker Michael Madigan Tuesday. The state legislative leaders agree overtime budget “negotiations” lack progress toward an agreement, but they do seem to be inching toward a process of elimination. Madigan said three out of four caucuses “strongly rejected” Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s idea to put $26 billion toward the $41 billion unfunded public pension liability by leasing the Illinois Lottery for $10 billion and floating $16 billion in pension obligation bonds.

Madigan’s statement adds one more item that the House eliminates from the governor’s wish list, including the gross receipts tax and universal health care. But Madigan said the governor doesn’t seem interested in resolving the issues one by one. “I can sit and look at a list of issues that are on the table, and I can go through and personally resolve them,” Madigan said. “But I’m not alone. It requires five people.”

Senate President Emil Jones Jr. said it was “rather foolish” to reject the pension plan. “The other caucuses don’t want to do it, which seems ridiculous to me, because if we do a bond issue and sell the lottery, we’ll cut down on the indebtedness we have with the pension. And we save money,” he said. “Maybe they’ll come to their senses and realize that we have this obligation.”

Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson and his caucus members haven’t taken a final position on leasing the lottery, said his spokeswoman Patty Schuh, but they have “serious reservations.” “Sen. Watson’s concerned that it's perhaps being proposed not for pension relief, but rather for budget relief, to free up cash for the governor to spend.”

House Republican Leader Tom Cross said these budget “negotiations” that include guest presentations aren’t even talking about numbers or a bottom line, yet. And it’s possible that this could just be a waiting game until everyone agrees on the House version of a limited-growth budget. Then everyone goes home knowing that the spending plan won’t get the state through an entire fiscal year.

No end is in sight if everyone remains entrenched in their positions:

1. The governor frames universal health insurance as the civil rights issue of the time.

2. Jones threatens to reject anything that cuts education funding or public services.

3. Madigan points to the House’s limited-growth budget that relies on $300 million in corporate tax break closures.

4. and 5. Republicans in both chambers oppose all tax increases.

Join the waiting game for a contingency plan if no state budget happens before July 1, the start of a new fiscal year. As Cross said, “We are closing in on a collision.”

Wednesday’s leaders’ meeting topic: mass transit funding. Thursday’s topic: property tax relief for Cook County.

Can, can you vote for a "Con Con" in 2008?

If the General Assembly can’t break the deadlock on education funding reform, ethics and property tax relief, then the Illinois voters should be encouraged to support the call for a constitutional convention, possibly changing the state document and making that reform happen. That’s what 48 representatives approved Thursday morning before the House and Senate finished their first, three-day week of overtime session. The House won’t be back in the Capitol until the June 12, the Senate June 14, much to the dismay of Gov. Rod Blagojevich. His administration repeated its belief that lawmakers should work all week every week until they agree on a state budget before the next fiscal year starts July 1.

The stalemate over the FY08 budget is just one example of the General Assembly’s inability to resolve some major policy issues.

In 2008, voters will be asked on the ballot whether Illinois should call another constitutional convention, last held in 1970. The existing state constitution requires the question to be on the ballot every 20 years. The last time was in 1988, when the call for a “con con” was soundly defeated by more than 1.8 million votes, said Cris Cray, legislative liaison with the Illinois State Board of Elections. Rep. John Fritchey hopes voters are frustrated enough to reconsider this time around.

His measure approved Thursday encourages Illinois voters to support the 2008 question and lists education funding, ethics and property taxes as issues unable to be resolved the General Assembly. The Chicago Democrat said during debate that a convention would allow the opportunity to reconsider whether the constitution should be changed to address those and other stubborn policy issues. “It’s about putting a room full of people in here that are going to put policy and intellect over election cycles, over politics, over campaign funding,” he said.

He gained support from Republicans, including his co-sponsor Rep. Bill Black of Danville, who said it’s time for the public to finally have a say in education funding reform. Because, he said, the other way to establish a major policy change, through legislation seeking a constitutional amendment, typically gets stuck in the legislative process.

Such opponents as House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie of Chicago and Assistant Majority Leader Lou Lang of Skokie don’t like the idea of opening up the entire state document to change. “I think there’s a big risk in saying, ‘Let’s throw the whole thing open. Let’s start from scratch,’” Currie said. “We don’t need to start from scratch” because the General Assembly has a “good, sound” document to guide its operations. Lang added that a convention would invite all types of groups with specific agendas to cause “mischief” in altering the framework of the constitution.

Forty-seven House members rejected Fritchey’s measure, but it had enough votes to be adopted.

Shortly after lawmakers left town for the weekend, the governor led the third overtime meeting with the four legislative leaders. But his “speechmaking” and “nebulous talking” isn’t getting them closer to a budget agreement, according to Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson per his spokeswoman, Patty Schuh.

Blagojevich sent out Deputy Gov. Sheila Nix to address reporters again after the meeting. She said he wants property tax relief, that he’s willing to consider different approaches and that he plans to bring in Cook County Assessor Jim Houlihan into next week’s leaders’ meeting.