Progress Illinois

Following the lead of Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin, the Tribune editorial board directed their anger over the Cook County sales tax veto override failure at House Speaker Michael Madigan today, blaming the Chicago Democrat for bottling up a bill in Springfield that would have lowered the county's override threshold from a four-fifths majority to three-fifths. They also praise Sen. Dan Kotowski and Rep. Julie Hamos for their vow to revive the bill during the October veto session:

Why would Madigan entomb a common-sense measure to lower the threshold for a veto override?

Because Madigan wants to protect the thousands of Democratic patronage jobs in county government. Many of those payrollers donate money and campaign time to Madigan's party. Overriding Stroger's veto and lowering the sales tax would begin to force some economies -- such as eliminating a few do-little patronage jobs -- on Stroger's government.

So let's bestow on Madigan the honor he richly deserves: co-ownership of Stroger's galling tax hike. They're the taxmen.

As Rich Miller notes, Madigan is not colluding with Board President Todd Stroger. The Speaker has long opposed dropping the threshold, a point the Tribune and lawmakers omit. But there is no reason the will of the people and the elected officials they represent should be thwarted by laws that don't apply to any other level of government. And it's good to see the Tribune rally behind this reasonable legislative fix.

In a front page story today, political reporter Rick Pearson examines a new Tribune/WGN poll of 700 registered Illinois voters and describes President Obama's home-state approval rating as "shaky." Here's an excerpt:

The results of the poll, conducted Aug. 27-31, indicate many of Obama's home-state voters have the same concerns that voters have shown in national polling, where confusion over a complicated health-care reform plan and continued worries about employment have taken an even greater toll on the president's approval rating.

Rich Miller offers a thoughtful critique of Pearson's summary over at Capitol Fax, pointing out that it's not particularly instructive to compare Obama's current approval ratings with those from February, when they were artificially high and the president hadn't yet endured any bruising legislative fights. After all, Obama only won the state with 61 percent of the vote in November.

He also knocks Pearson for his supposition that "Obama’s standing with home-state voters could create problems for Illinois Democrats, if it continues into next year’s general election." A downward trend is obviously never encouraging for a politician or a party. But the president is still broadly popular in the state (only 33 percent disapprove of his performance thus far) and will likely remain so, especially if some version of health care reform is approved.

Then there's Pearson's conclusion regarding independents:

Among the potentially troubling signs for Democrats that surfaced in the survey was the fact that only about half of voters who describe themselves as independents approved of Obama's job performance. Illinois has voted Democratic in recent elections, but independents remain a key swing block.

The Tribune did not release the survey's cross tabs, so we can't see the exact figure Pearson is referring to here.  (Does "about half" mean slightly more than 50 percent? Slightly less?) But it's worth noting that, according to Illinois exit polls, 55 percent of self-described "Independents" supported Obama last November, compared to 43 percent for John McCain. Dropping a few percentage points is hardly definitive, let alone "potentially troubling."

Some members of Senate Finance Committee may be looking to pare down the size of the upper chamber's health care package and the White House is deliberating if they would accept such a deal. Back home, lawmakers are staking out their positions as well. Here's the latest in local health care news:

Foster's Tele-Town Hall

Rep. Bill Foster, a potential swing vote, clarified his stance on many health reform issues during a tele-town hall meeting with constituents last night. The Geneva Democrat reiterated his support for a public option, albeit one that operates on a level playing field with private insurance companies. He also expressed openness to a few funding mechanisms, including a surtax on the top 1 percent of the nation's wage earners or a tax on high-level health insurance policies that currently are provided tax free. For reformers, this should come as a good sign.

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This month, Tribune business columnist David Greising has written two pieces urging more disclosure on the part of Chicago's Olympic bid committee and, in doing so, spurred a lengthy editorial from his paper on the topic.  On Friday, he appeared on Chicago Tonight's "Week in Review" show to discuss the games and continued to push back against the committee's assurances that they are being "open and transparent."  Watch it (full video here):

GRIESING: It's interesting. I've talked to people at the Olympic committee -- Chicago 2016 -- and they all believe that they've been the most open and transparent group that has ever been seen in the face of the Olympic movement. 

And yet, a few weeks away, 40-some days away from the October 2 vote, we still don't know who these insurance companies are that are supposed to be backing -- guaranteeing the bid.  We have no idea who any of the developers are of the Olympic Village.  The guarantee they're looking for -- the unlimited guarantee from the city -- we don't know much about.  We've had a little bit of corruption -- not corruption, conflicts of interest pop up with this Michael Scott -- this Olympic committee member who is involved in a development near the village.

It's just all kind of stirring around and it doesn't smell very good to longtime Chicagoans.

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In recent weeks, we've watched Tribune business columnist David Greising wake up to the idea that, if Chicago wins the 2016 Olympic bid, it could become just the latest venue for closed-door cronyism, corruption, and mismanagement.  More specifically, Greising has urged Mayor Daley and the bid committee to commit to a fully transparent process and subject the process to the Freedom of Information Act. Now the Tribune editorial board has joined the chorus:

Aldermen and citizens need to be confident that the Games will come off without the city taking a bath. Because if and when Daley signs an agreement in Copenhagen guaranteeing that Chicago will deliver the Olympics -- no matter the cost -- those aldermen and citizens will be sitting in the tub.

Our advice to Chicago 2016 head Pat Ryan as he tries to sell an Olympics to Chicago: Be candid. Be specific. Don't sugarcoat risk.

Read their entire list of suggestions for Ryan.

In today's paper, Tribune business columnist David Griesing whacks the Chicago 2016 bid committee for being so discreet about their Olympic fundraising and explains to the public why they don't have to accept the shroud of secrecy. A choice excerpt:

Now, [bid committee chair Pat] Ryan is a phenomenally successful insurance executive. He knows a deal breaker when he sees it, and he knows he needs the city's financial guarantee for the Games or there is no Chicago Olympics.

Ryan and Mayor Richard Daley, who want the Olympics so badly, will do about anything to get that guarantee. And that is why -- in exchange for a government guarantee in a city and state with a corruption-riddled track record -- citizens must insist on access to the Olympic committee's records.

This is called negotiating leverage, and taxpayers and citizens, in those rare moments when they have leverage, are fools if they do not use it.

Access to the Olympic committee's records is within the reach of the people who are being asked to guarantee the Games. All the City Council has to do -- at hearings next month -- is ask.

Go read the whole thing here.

After insisting for months that Chicago taxpayers wouldn't be on the hook for more than $500 million in cost overruns should the city land the 2016 Olympics, Mayor Daley reneged on this promise in June when he agreed to sign a blanket financial guarantee at the urging of the International Olympic Committee. The flip-flop galvanized longtime opponents of the city's bid and also drew criticism from some unlikely sources, including Tribune business columnist David Greising who lambasted Daley in a June 19 column. "The same sort of hubris has caught up with other Olympic cities that lived to regret the cost," Griesing wrote.

In the months since, Greising has clearly continued to think hard about whether taxpayers can trust Daley -- and his secretive, closed-door management style -- with such a massive undertaking.  In his column today, he offers city officials and the Chicago 2016 bid committee a way to build confidence among the public:

If Chicago's taxpayers are to offer an indispensable guarantee, they should get more than the world's biggest swim and track meet. They should get, in fact, a tool that will provide a close-up view into the wheeling, the dealing, the high jinks and palm greasing that will make the 2016 Games uniquely Chicago [...]

In other words, the City Council should insist -- and Chicago 2016 should agree -- that the organizing committee become subject to the Illinois Freedom of Information Act [...]

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Study after study these past few months have demonstrated the global economic crisis' devastating impact on state budgets. It's no secret why. Just as demand for government-backed safety-net services is growing, tax revenues are plummeting across the board. And Illinois is right in the thick of it, with lower-than-expected returns on personal income, corporate income, and sales taxes.

In his Tribune column yesterday, Steve Chapman acknowledged this dynamic. But he went on to argue that overspending by state lawmakers is the real culprit:

The crisis in state budgets is not an accident, and it wasn't unforeseeable. For years, most states have spent like there's no tomorrow, and now tomorrow is here. They bring to mind the lament of Mickey Mantle, who said, "If I knew I was going to live this long, I'd have taken better care of myself." [...]

Illinois is another problem child. The state's general fund appropriation is some two-thirds higher today than it would be if the state had just kept those outlays in line with inflation over the last two decades. That increase, as in California, is the difference between a gaping deficit and a comfortable surplus.

Unfortunately, Chapman grossly oversimplifies how Illinois' state budget operates.

First, the facts. The Bureau of Economic Analysis tracks General Fund spending as a factor of the state's GDP. Between 1997 and 2007, the most recent year for which data was available, spending in Illinois increased by just five one‐hundredths of one percent (from 3.35 to 3.4 percent). Despite boasting the nation's 5th largest population, the Prairie State ranks 45th in spending.

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Most lawmakers weren't happy with the budget they passed on Wednesday. Neither was the financial research firm Moody's Investors Services. But what did the state's editorial boards make of the "stop gap" spending plan cobbled together and approved Wednesday evening? Well, let's just say there's little praise to be found on the editorial pages today.

The Daily Herald considers the spending bill a mixed-bag. On the one hand, compared with the "50 percent" budget passed by legislators at the end of May, lawmakers found ways to restore some funding to social service programs that help care for the vulnerable (though the exact level of funding these providers will receive remains uncertain). But like so many bills that pass through the General Assembly, "the devil always is in the details:"

It's clear from the way in which it was handled and from the way in which the most painful decisions were pushed off, that political self preservation still rules the day in Springfield. [...]

The only things moved forward were the tough decisions and billions in debt. Quinn and the others need to accept, like many of us have, that trying to borrow your way out of debt can be catastrophic. They can still learn. They should host hearings and provide details now on budget cuts and prospective tax hikes and keep the information coming.

That would be refreshing leadership.

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Last week, we reported on a protest organized by the prison reform organization Tamms Year Ten demanding a retraction from the Tribune for its editorial in May criticizing State Rep. Julie Hamos' bill to reform the Tamms Correctional Center in downstate Illinois. While the paper hasn't made any public statements about the piece thus far, the editorial board did grant the group a meeting later that day. According to a play-by-play dispatch filed with the Beachwood Reporter, editorial page editor R. Bruce Dold and his colleagues inquired about some meaty topics, including the absence of clear criteria for transfer in and out of Tamms, the treatment of mentally ill patients at the facility, and whether the state needs a supermax prison at all.

Editorial board member Pat Widder also made this defense of their piece:

Widder and Dold indicated that the original editorial was not intended to imply that there were not problems at Tamms, only that they questioned a legislative remedy, and thought that the executive branch is a more appropriate venue. Reynolds explained that the original legislative impetus for the prison was from Governor Edgar's task force, which had actually specified that specific objective criteria should be mandated by statute to ensure humanitarian safeguards and avoid long-term isolation.

Holding that position is perfectly legitimate, but it doesn't excuse the paper from misrepresenting key facts about the bill's language. Widder concluded the meeting by assuring the activists that the paper will "return to this issue after we meet with new IDOC chief Michael Randle." We look forward to reading their new, hopefully more informed, take.