Progress Illinois

After killing a clean coal bill in June, electric utility Commonwealth Edison lifted its opposition to a similar measure yesterday, leading the Illinois House to easily pass (86-5) a measure that could lead to construction of a new generation of clean-coal power plants in the Prairie State. According to Crain's, "the bill would require utilities and power marketers to buy 5 percent of their electricity from facilities like the 600-megawatt plant proposed for Downstate Taylorville, which is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by separating carbon during the coal-burning process for later burial." Both House Speaker Mike Madigan and his daughter, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, support the measure, claiming this technology will save consumers money in the long-run.

But there are still a lot of steps between yesterday's vote and the actual development of new plants. First, the Senate must pass the same measure. Then the testing begins:

Like earlier versions, the House-passed bill would require Taylorville plant developer Tenaska Co. to conduct a detailed cost study before the bill’s provisions take effect. The Legislature then would have to vote again to move forward with the project after seeing the study, as well as critiques of the document by state utility regulators.

The state would foot the bill for that study, which is projected to cost between $10 million and $18 million.

Why is there so much trepidation? As Crain's notes, "the carbon-sequestration technology is expensive, and its feasibility has yet to be proven."

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It's been compared to a poker game, a multi-act play, and a three ring circus. No matter what you call it, the special session is back.

At 1pm today, lawmakers convened in Springfield to consider strategies for funding the $2 billion deficit Gov. Rod Blagojevich has identified in the the state budget. If legislators don't support the governor's revenue plans, he has threatened to use his veto pen to cut $1.5 billion out of the spending plan.

Blagojevich's proposals include: tapping into more than $400 million in protected state accounts and privatizing the state lottery system. The House, under speaker and Blagojevich nemesis Michael Madigan, rejected the measures during the spring session. Last year, disagreement between the governor and the legislature left Illinois without a budget until August.

Here's what capitol-watchers are saying about this year's standoff.

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"The most remarkable thing about the spring session of the Illinois legislature is that it did anything at all." That's how Stateline.org begins its appraisal of legislative action taken in Illinois during the spring session.

Every year the non-partisan website issues an overview of political news from all 50 states. While most Illinoisans already know their state legislature can get a bit ... dysfunctional, this year's section on the Prairie State was particularly sobering:

The General Assembly sent Blagojevich only one third of the legislation it did last year: 283 bills in 2008 compared to 750 in 2007. [...]

Hundreds of bills died during the regular session as the result of a procedural dispute over Blagojevich’s health expansion plans that erupted into a balance-of-powers struggle.

The governor announced he would ignore the decisions of a legislative panel charged with approving administrative rules. [House Speaker Michael] Madigan tried to block the Blagojevich administration from writing any new rules, by attaching that condition to House bills. The Senate stripped the restrictions. The chambers never resolved the difference.

Today, Gov. Blagojevich announced that he's convening a special session next Wednesday in the hopes of dealing with the budget stalemate. So Stateline may need to revise its legislative recap sometime in the near future.

A full overview of state legislative news from around the country can be found here.

In her Sun-Times column today, Laura Washington profiles Aurora Austriaco, a 43-year old community activist and lawyer running to unseat 15-year Republican State Rep. Rosemary Mulligan in Illinois' 65th District, which includes portions of Des Plaines, Park Ridge, Niles, Rosemont, and Chicago's Northwest Side. One of eight children to emigrate from the Philippines, Austriaco would become the first Asian-American to be elected to the Illinois General Assembly, an opportunity rooted in her intrepid work ethic:

Austriaco arrived on the city's Northwest Side at the age of 18. Her reassembled family of 10 was scrunched into a three-bedroom, second-floor walkup. She worked days, went to school at night. "I tell you, Laura, I don't know how we survived."

Then came bachelor's and law degrees from DePaul University. Then a practice in real estate law at Peck, Bloom, Austriaco and Koenig. She is short on naivete and hubris and long on smarts and insight.

"She cares deeply about the issues in our community, and yet she is no fool," said Cook County Circuit Court Judge Sandra Otaka, an early political mentor.

While her district has been solidly Republican for years, demographics and political affiliations in the collar counties -- along with an Obama bump and key endorsements from Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Secretary of State Jesse White, and U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky -- means Austriaco has a shot.

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Back in April, Mose noted the contrast between Illinois -- where lawmakers continue efforts to expand gambling -- and numerous other states across the country that have retreated from gaming as a cure-all for their budget woes. Today, the Tribune reports on a new study from the Rockefeller Institute which provides yet more evidence that gambling is waning as a dependable revenue source. Indeed, proceeds last month from Illinois' nine casinos were apparently "down 14 percent from May 2007." The article quotes one of the report's authors singling out Illinois' dependance on gaming revenue, while noting that it's not "a real winner ... in the long term":

Whatever the reason, study authors say states shouldn’t rely on gambling as a growth stream, given their findings.

Illinois counts on gambling for about 4 percent of its state revenue—a figure nearly double the national average of 2.3 percent, according to Robert Ward, deputy director of the Rockefeller Institute and co-author of the study.

“States have become very reliant on gambling revenue, Illinois more so than most,” Ward said. “Adding gambling operations can help solve short-term budgetary needs. It’s not going to be a real winner of a solution in the long term.”

Chicago Public Radio reported today that Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston) -- who has generally allied herself with Michael Madigan -- criticized the House Speaker's lack of engagement today:

HAMOS: I do wish that Speaker Madigan was more engaged now, as one of our key leaders in the state of Illinois. You know, we have some big issues that we did not resolve his year, and if Speaker Madigan is not at the table, they're really never going to get resolved.

Yesterday, Gov. Blagojevich requested a meeting with the four highest-ranking legislative leaders to discuss balancing the budget. Madigan's office responded that he would be sending a representative and not attending the meeting himself.

A slew of bills were considered as legislators ended the spring session in Springfield Saturday. Here are a few key developments:

Budget

Hoping to avoid the embarrassment of another extended summer session, the General Assembly approved a $60 billion state budget on deadline Saturday. The document would increase spending by about $2 billion over the current year, increasing funding to education and some health care and social service programs. Republicans derided the bill as "irresponsible" and "out of whack" because it relies on what the Tribune calls "optimistic forecasts of how much revenue the state will take in."

Many of Gov. Blagojevich's spending priorities were omitted, including a $16 billion pension bond that would allow the state to borrow against pension receipts and invest the money for a higher return, leading some business and anti-tax groups to call for union concessions. While Blagojevich says he will keep an "open mind" about passing the bill, he could issue a total veto that would leave the state without a spending plan for the budget year that begins in July.

Capital plan

The $34 billion capital improvements program, a plan Blagojevich strongly supported, was quashed in the House late Saturday night by House Speaker Michael Madigan after it had passed the Senate. The General Assembly could revisit the capital bill -- which was to be funded by expanding gambling and leasing the Illinois lottery -- during the veto session in November.

Pay-to-play ban

After three years of deliberations, both chambers passed an ethics plan banning contributions from state contractors to elected officials who award the contracts. A spokesperson for Blagojevich hinted that he may want to tighten the bills' restrictions through an amedatory veto, a move Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago) warned against. "The governor's office has the audacity to say that they wish we would improve on this," Fritchey said about the bill, which he sponsored. "We are not under investigation. We do not award contracts. We have not been accused of doling out contracts to state contributors ... Any changes to this bill would be a slap to the face of the work of these two chambers."

But it ain't over yet ...

Blagojevich has called a press conference at 11 a.m. this morning in Chicago "to comment on the new budget passed by the General Assembly." Stay tuned for more details.

One of the last-minute bills the General Assembly will consider in the next 48 hours is a measure mandating that "25 percent of power sold in Illinois come from clean-coal plants by 2025." The legislation would also allow for the construction of a $2.5 billion coal-gasification plant near Taylorville, IL, assuming that the operators of that plant commit to "capturing" at least 50 percent of its carbon-dioxide emissions.

While the carbon sequestration provisions of the bill are considered a concession to environmentalists, some are concerned that the technology necessary to actually capture the CO2 will not be ready in time. An article in The New York Times today points out the hurdles faced by "clean coal" proponents:

Coal is abundant and cheap, assuring that it will continue to be used. But the failure to start building, testing, tweaking and perfecting carbon capture and storage means that developing the technology may come too late to make coal compatible with limiting global warming.

“It’s a total mess,” said Daniel M. Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. [...]

The fear is that utilities, lacking proven chemical techniques for capturing carbon dioxide and proven methods for storing it underground by the billions of tons per year, will build the next generation of coal plants using existing technology. That would ensure that vast amounts of global warming gases would be pumped into the atmosphere for decades.

Here's to hoping our representatives in Springfield are aware of these obstacles. It's a risky proposition to sign off on a plan that hinges on the use of untested technology.

Last weekend, the Tribune reported on how the payday loan industry has been pumping campaign contributions into Springfield in advance of legislative efforts to curb predatory lending practices in Illinois. One observer noted that the industry will continue to rake in big profits as long as the pending legislation is postponed:

"If they can delay a policy, then that's to their advantage," [Kent Redfield, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Springfield] explained. "These are smart people. They wouldn't be giving money if it didn't have an impact."

If delaying reforms was the objective, the industry appears to have accomplished its mission this legislative session. The bill aiming to cap interest rates for longer-term payday loans passed in the Senate earlier this year, but will not come up for a vote in the House before the end of the month, said Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston), who sponsored the House version:

[Hamos] said the issue is too complicated to address effectively before the Legislature's summer adjournment, possibly in the next few weeks. She said the measure may be ready for a final vote when lawmakers return to Springfield in the fall.

"We're just trying to enact some reasonable regulations so borrowers are not getting gouged," Hamos said. "... I'm not trying to drive [payday lenders] out of business."

Of course, the payday loan business model depends on "gouging" borrowers and thus trapping them in a cycle of high-interest debt. As a former industry employee recently told an Ohio ABC News affiliate," That's their bread and butter. That's what they depend on is repeat customers. Every two weeks, you pay it off on a Friday, you come back on a Saturday and re-borrow."

(Image used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user swanksalot)

The Tribune reported Saturday that the payday loan industry is flooding Springfield with campaign contributions:

Contributions to state politicians nationwide have mushroomed from just over $1 million in 2000 to $4.1 million in 2006, and Illinois has led all states, with $2.2 million given to politicians since 2000, according to figures from the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

Illinois is the only state in the country with a cap on short-term payday loans (with repayment schedules under 120 days) but none on longer-term predatory loans, meaning lenders can still charge exorbitant interest rates that send cash-strapped residents into a destructive cycle of debt.

At the same time, Illinois is one of only five states with no cap on campaign contributions, meaning the payday loan industry can spend as much as they want to fight efforts to close this loophole.

The spike in contributions is no big surprise. As other states -- most recently Ohio -- tighten controls on payday lending, the industry is clearly becoming more desperate to oppose reform in Illinois. As we previously reported, a bill to cap longer term payday loans passed the state senate earlier this year. It is scheduled for a hearing in the House Executive Committee tomorrow. We'll keep you updated on its progress.

(Image used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user Geigenot.)