In Washington...

Not surprisingly, the state budget took center stage in Springfield this week. Equally unsurprising: lawmakers took no further action to address the $13 billion deficit.

Sen. Toi Hutchinson (D-Olympia Fields) (pic 5) provided a glimmer of hope, however. She stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the newly-formed group Women For A Better Illinois to tell her colleagues "We're in a crisis and we need to start acting like it." At a Chicago event organized by the group, Illinois Action for Children's Maria Whelan reiterated the demand that lawmakers adopt a responsible budget. "This gathering today is the tip of a mighty iceberg that will be moving toward Springfield," she said.

Gov. Pat Quinn went out on a limb himself, telling fellow Democrats that the caucus might have to go it alone on a tax hike. The AP suggested that Quinn has no "plan B" if his budget plan fails to garner legislative support. We pointed out that he has, in fact, laid out two budget scenarios while most critics of his plan have laid out none.

Instead, Illinois' GOP leaders continued to call for hot-button reforms that would do little to actually balance the budget. Among them was reforming workers compensation, which we noted is an odd target considering it's only been a few years since a bipartisan reform bill was passed.

In laying out his group's budget proposal, John Tillman -- of the conservative Illinois Policy Institute (IPI) -- went so far as to claim that "public employees are the new wealth class." We rebutted his assertion that state employee salaries are way out of line with those in the private sector.

With the May 3 deadline for getting a redistricting initiative on the ballot fast approaching, we looked at the stalled legislative efforts and check in with the citizen-led Fair Map coalition for an update on their reform campaign. On another reform note, Northside Democracy for America is urging its members to push back against State Rep. Joe Lyons' (D-Chicago) incumbent aldermen protection plan.

In other news, the prolonged battle to close a loophole in Illinois' payday lending reform law is gaining momentum as consumer groups have picked up some much-needed support from lawmakers and select industry groups. And Sen. James Clayborne  (D-East St. Louis) and Rep. Tom Holbrook (D-Belleville) reintroduced the proposal to create a sales tax revenue (STAR) district in Glen Carbon that Rich Miller described last year as the "worst bill ever."

In Chicago and Cook Co. ...

Mayor Daley managed to stay out of the news this week until a coalition of civic groups -- organized under the Developing Government Accountability to the People (DGAP) project -- awarded him a failing grade for his job performance on housing, education, economic development, and other social policies over the past year.

Of course, aldermen have largely voted in lock step with the mayor.  Now, Chicago City Clerk Miguel Del Valle (pic 3) is working to better document their actions.  This week, he unveiled a new video archive of City Council meetings.  And he has plans to put more public data online in the coming months.