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Capitol Fax

Rich Miller's commentary on State Government

I've often said that I'm a reform agnostic.

It's not that I don't believe in good government. I do. Fervently.

And I most certainly don't believe as some do that voters should be given the sole responsibility to weed out the crooks and con artists. "Let the buyer beware" just isn't good enough. Rod Blagojevich's two consecutive gubernatorial campaign wins and George Ryan's earlier win proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that voters simply aren't able to handle this task on their own.

So, we do need some "consumer protection" laws in Illinois. But we should also keep some important points in mind.

For instance, campaign contribution caps are now being pushed hard by good government groups and Gov. Pat Quinn's independent reform commission. Most want a federal style program that would cap contributions at about $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for political action committees.

On its face, that looks quite reasonable. Contribution limitations are imposed in Washington, DC and many other states.

But caps can also hurt those who challenge the status quo.

It's probably no coincidence that no incumbent Illinois congressman has lost his or her seat for years unless they were under some sort of extreme ethical cloud. For instance, Dan Rostenkowski got caught up in a probe of the US House post office and was the only Illinois Democrat turned out during the historic 1994 national Republican landslide. Dan Crane was ousted by voters after his involvement in a congressional page sex scandal. Charles Hayes lost a primary when he was linked to a House bounced checks scandal.

Back in 2007, several deeply entrenched Chicago aldermen lost their seats to young reformers because a few reform-minded labor unions dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into their campaigns. If the union contributions had been capped, most of those reformers would've lost.

Caps mean that most challengers have to work much harder to raise money. Incumbents have access to financial networks that usually dwarf those of outsiders. National political parties and caucus organizations often take up the slack these days to help level the congressional playing field, but that usually means they choose who runs. The proposals coming out of Springfield would cap those sorts of contributions to state and local candidates.

The horrific venality revealed after Rod Blagojevich's arrest and indictment has prompted loud and angry calls to "Do something and do it now." One of those "somethings" most often mentioned is campaign contribution caps.

If we're going down that road then we should do as little harm as possible to challengers. A higher cap, perhaps somewhere near the $10,000 legislative limit proposed by Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno, might be the way to go. It's high enough to help people fend off uncapped, self-financing millionaire opponents, but low enough to do some reforming good.

Also, barring all campaign donations of any kind to incumbent legislators and statewide officials during the spring legislative session would help even out the playing field for challengers and could prevent some pay to play hanky panky. It might also ensure that the General Assembly adjourns on time.

Banning contributions from industries regulated by the government would be an obvious help.

Requiring almost immediate online disclosure of contributions could be an effective deterrent. If we had known in "real time" that Blagojevich was taking $25,000 contributions from his appointees to state boards and commissions, we might have been able to stop some of his excesses.

One of the most important changes we can make has nothing to do with money, however.

Prohibiting incumbents from drawing legislative, congressional, aldermanic and county board district maps is an absolute must. Incumbents in this state "choose" their voters by manipulating their own district boundaries every ten years.

Iowa allows a computer to draw district maps based on population, not political or other parochial preferences. As the congressional results show, incumbents have far too much advantage, so keeping them from drawing their own maps would be an enormous help.

In the end, though, Illinois voters absolutely must start looking beyond the slick ads, familiar names and blind partisan leanings which have gotten us into this mess. Just about every political reporter in Illinois did his or her very best in the 2006 governor's race to warn voters that they were about to reelect a crook. Voters bought Blagojevich's bag of disgusting goods and here we stand.

Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and thecapitolfaxblog.com.

Senate Week In Review

March 30-April 3, 2009 - A view from the Illinois Senate Republican Press Office

SPRINGFIELD ­ The Governor signed a multi-billion dollar program April 3 that will both reduce the state's backlog of unpaid bills to Medicaid providers and allow the state to immediately finance a statewide road, bridge and mass transit repair program.

State Sen. Tim Bivins (R-Dixon) said that Senate Republican lawmakers negotiated an amendment that requires the $2 billion in the plan for road repair be restricted to projects that are already on the state transportation department's multi-year road plan, or projects that were included in the spring 2009 repair plan. In addition, the Republican Caucus worked hard to ensure that the funds are fairly distributed between downstate Illinois and the Chicago region.

Bivins said that the capital plan will fix the state's crumbling transportation infrastructure, as well as create jobs and put thousands of people to work across Illinois.

The legislation also provides the revenue necessary to help Illinois get caught up on its Medicaid debt. Currently, it can take six to eight months for a nursing home, hospital or physician to receive a Medicaid reimbursement check from the state. With the influx of cash the state will receive from the stimulus funds, the Governor's budget office is now projecting a 30-day turnaround. However, Republicans have cautioned that without structural reforms to the Medicaid system, the state could again fall behind in 2011 after the federal stimulus program expires.

Also this week, Senate Republican lawmakers unveiled a report that details ways the state could realize more than $21 billion in potential cost-savings over the next five years. Relying on expert witness testimony provided to the Senate Committee on Deficit Reduction, the Republican Caucus compiled a report that identified significant cost-savings within state government, Medicaid and pension reforms, and limits on education mandates.

The lawmakers stressed the need for fiscal reform as opposed to tax increases, acknowledging that although the changes will take time, they are necessary to permanently address the state's massive budget deficit.

Other legislation approved by the Senate this week, which now moves to the House for further consideration, includes:

Abuse (SB 1927): Requires the Department of Public Health to investigate every allegation of abuse of a hospital patient that is received by the Department of Public Health.

Accountability Portal (SB 2086): Requires CMS to establish the "Illinois Accountability Portal" searchable Web site to allow the public easy access to information on state government workers, expenditures, contracts, etc.

American Flags (SB 1753): Requires state institutions and agencies to purchase American flags manufactured in the United States of America.

American Made (SB 1559): Requires municipalities' vehicles and school districts' driver's education vehicles to be American-made.

Background Checks (SB 1677): Establishes a task force to examine the process used by state and local government agencies to conduct criminal history record checks as a condition of employment, and requires background checks on unlicensed child care providers related to the child.

Blind Vendors (SB 2045): Requires priority be given to blind vendors in the operation of vending facilities on state property.

Charter Schools (SB 315): Doubles the amount of charter schools allowed in Illinois from 60 to 120.

Cigarette Tax (SB 44): Increases the tax on cigarettes by $1 per pack.

Counterfeit (SB 1631): Strengthens penalties for those possessing, selling, marketing and transporting counterfeit goods.

Delinquents (SB 1706): Establishes a procedure for the court to remove a minor from their home who is arrested on a criminal delinquency charge or found delinquent.

Disabled Citizens (SB 1552): Allows disabled persons to qualify for Senior Citizens Assessment Freeze Homestead Exemption grants, regardless of their age. (SB 2057): Requires emergency service providers to create a database of people with special needs and disabilities to ensure these citizens can be given the same level of emergency care as all citizens.

DUI (SB 1816): Adds DUI violations to the list of offenses whereupon restitution will be required if the defendant injured another person or the property of another person.

Foreclosure (SB 268): Creates a Foreclosure Prevention Counseling Fund.

Foster Care (SB 1576): Requires DCFS to work with foster care providers to determine reasonable future rate increases for foster parents.

Fund Protection (SB 1526): Restricts the use of Department of Natural Resources fees and federal funds for anything other than DNR policies and programs.

Gaming (SB 1298): Allows Internet and telephone wagering on horseracing.

Green Programs (SB 1570): Creates a program to fund wind generation projects and solar generation projects for school districts.

Health Facilities Planning Board (SB 1905): Reforms the Health Facilities Planning Board and the Certificate-of-Need Process.

Illegal Immigrants (SB 2052): Forbids illegal aliens from receiving training grants from the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

Judges (SB 1670): Creates new judgeships in Kane, DeKalb, Kendall, Winnebago and Boone counties. (SB 1938): Creates new judgeships in Lake and Will counties.

Judicial Pension (SB 369): States that pension benefits calculations should be based on the four highest salary years in the final ten years of a judge's or a legislator's career.

Judicial Protection (SB 1582): Restricts the disclosure of a judge's or judicial candidate's home residence or telephone number.

LIHEAP (SB 1629): Links housing providers with LIHEAP to provide LIHEAP participants living in subsidized housing with energy assistance.

Medicaid (SB 2002): Creates a fund to track receipts of all federal Medicaid reimbursements.

METRA (SB 577): Establishes a program that would require METRA to integrate machines that would allow passengers to purchase fare cards by credit cards.

MPEA (SB 1846): Allows the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority to do a backloaded refinancing of its $2 billion expansion bonds which are backed up by state sales taxes, and increases the state's tax backup on these bonds.

Multiple Sclerosis (SB 1809): Requires public employers to provide insurance coverage for medically necessary preventative physical therapy for employees diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Obstruction (SB 1655): Creates the offense of obstructing identification of an arrested person or a witness to a crime by providing false identification information to a police officer.

Police Pension (SB 1858): Authorizes an active member of the Chicago Police department to establish service credit for federal law enforcement work.

Political Committees (SB 1662): Requires political committees created within 30 days of an election to file their statement of organization within 24 hours via fax or e-mail.

Prevailing Wage (SB 43): Expands prevailing wage to public works projects located in an Enterprise Zone and Tax Incrementing Financing districts.

Railroad Crossings (SB 148): Changes the law that allows counties and municipalities to place cameras at railroad grade crossing and fine motorists for violations, removing the provision requiring a picture of the vehicle operator.

Riverboat Taxes (SB 1937): Reduces taxes for several riverboats.

School Districts (SB 1885): Allows school districts to immediately transfer a student to an alternative school if that student has pending juvenile or criminal proceedings alleging the commission of a forcible felony. (SB 2270): Requires school districts to post on their Web sites the itemized salary compensation reports of all certificated district administrators.

Senior Citizens (SB 2069): Increases Circuit Breaker eligibility and Illinois Cares Rx drug coverage for the 2009 claim year and provides for future annual increases.

Silver Alert (SB 27): Creates a "Silver Alert" system that requires the Illinois State Police and the Illinois Emergency Management Agency to develop and implement an alert system for missing or abducted senior citizens or citizens with disabilities.

STD (SB 212): Authorizes health care professionals to prescribe antibiotics to the partner of a patient with a sexually transmitted disease without requiring an office visit by the partner.

Tax Credits (SB 1522): Provides tax credits and grants for emerging high tech firms and their investors. (SB 77): Provides a tax credit to employers that match employee's contributions to College Illinois, the Bright Start College Savings Program or the Bright Directions College Savings Program.

U of I (SB 263): Eliminates the minimum admittance age at the University of Illinois.

Veterans (SB 2148): Authorizes grants to active duty members of the armed forces, and their family members, who have been wounded while deployed in support of the global War on Terror.

Victim Safety (SB 1770): Requires employers to allow employees who are victims of domestic abuse to take unpaid leave without penalty to seek medical help, legal assistance, counseling, and safety planning.

Visitation (SB 1590): Allows children to visit with the non-custodial parent by electronic means.

Zero Tolerance (SB 1718): Gives school boards greater flexibility when deciding whether to expel a student who brought a firearm or look-a-like weapon to school.

New Pet Rescue Group

Recently it has come to our attention that there is a new pet rescue organization in Carroll County. It bears the name of one of Savanna's finest citizens: Adrianne's Angels ­ The St. George Pet Rescue. The officers include Alan St. George, Al McIntosh, Sandi White, and Lorna May, former board member and secretary of the Humane Society of Carroll County. We, the Board of the Humane Society of Carroll County, wish them much success in their new endeavor.

As in the past, we will continue to provide financial assistance for spay/neuter and trap/neuter/return as well as Responsible Pet Ownership educational programs. Please call us at (815) 273-5331 (voicemail), and we will do our best to help you.

To the members of Adrianne's Angels, welcome aboard! We are always happy to have more people involved to deal with stray cats and dogs, because it is and always will be about the animals.

Sincerely,

Alan E. Schroeder, Anne Haliotis, Karen Bazilewich, and Kay Davis

H.S.C.C. Board

Eastland Earns 'Bright Red Apple'

SchoolSearch announces the 2009 Bright Red Apple Awards for educational excellence to outstanding Illinois school districts. Only 9% of IL school districts earned this award that is based on family-favored qualities.

Eastland CUSD 308 earns the 2009 Bright Red Apple Award under the leadership of Superintendent, Mark Hansen. This fine school district also earned Bright Red Apple Award in 2008.

The SchoolSearch Bright Red Apple Award was initiated in 1994. School districts that qualify for the award are strong in five key areas: Academic Performance, Pupil/Teacher Ratio, Expenditure per Pupil, Educational Level of Teachers & Average Teacher Salary.

These five areas are of prime importance to relocating families, as well as community members. In some Illinois locations, consortiums of educational excellence are formed with membership contingent on school districts' having earned the Bright Red Apple Award.

SchoolSearch is an educational research and consulting firm that publishes rankings of school systems. SchoolSearch provides comparative school district information for corporations, homebuilders, libraries, real estate professionals, school districts, attorneys, legislators & relocating families (since 1991). SchoolSearch is dedicated to helping families make informed school choices. While statistical factors are revealing, it is very important for families to visit schools that are of interest to them. Visit our web site at www.schoolsearchrankings.com.

Best regards,

Sid Thomas

SchoolSearch Associate

Manzullo Responds Re: Federal Reserve Transparency Bill

It was nice to receive a response from Congressman Manzullo via email asking for his support of HR 1207.If you have not already done so, please contact Congressman Mazullo or your local representative about this important legislation.

Mike Kocal

Lanark, IL

Dear Mike,

Thank you for contacting me in support of increasing transparency within the Federal Reserve. It is good to hear from you.

On February 26, 2009, Representative Ron Paul introduced H.R. 1207, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009.This legislation eliminates all restrictions on the ability of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct audits of the Federal Reserve. Additionally, this bill calls for a complete GAO audit of the Federal Reserve by the end of 2010. The aim of this legislation is to achieve greater transparency of the Federal Reserve.

You will be interested to know that this important issue was raised in the House Financial Services Committee, where I serve as a Member, during consideration of the Committee's Budget Views and Estimates. You may be pleased to know that at that meeting, Chairman Barney Frank indicated his intention for the committee to address this issue in the future. I am inclined to support this legislation and I look forward to the forthcoming debate in the Financial Services Committee. Please rest assured that I will keep your views in mind should this bill come to the House floor for a vote.

Thank you again for contacting me about this issue. Your input is important to my work here in Washington.

Sincerely,

Donald A. Manzullo

Member of Congress

Change What Doesn't Work

Conditions change and when we don't respond to the new realities with new ideas we compound our problems. Six months ago our economic
system was on the verge of collapse. Worse, we slowly began to realize that the economic philosophy guiding our economy was bankrupt. We are still dealing with the reality that we have to rebuild the economy but rebuild an economy and a way of life based on a different economic model. Here are some examples.

Problem: The American family farm is disappearing. One proposed solution was to sell federally subsidized corn under NAFTA to Mexico. The result was Mexican farmers couldn't compete with American corn. The Mexican farmer had three choices: starve, migrate to the United States or join the drug cartels. The outdated Solution: Build a fence and keep the drugs and immigrants out and continue to mindlessly tout the wonders of free trade. When that didn't work we started to build a bigger, better hi-tech fence. The Results are drugs and illegal immigrants continue to cross into America. And the American family farm continues to disappear and the Gulf of Mexico dead zone continues to expand.

Change indicates that we should stop selling corn to Mexico and help Mexican farmers modernize their farms with appropriate technology. Drugs should be legalized, taxed and regulated. American farmers have to be weaned off commodity crops, which are a glut on both the domestic and international markets and destroy economies in developing countries. At home, we have to create a different way of farming

Problem: General Motors is in serious financial trouble. GM is in trouble because of the recession and they are accused of making the wrong types of vehicles. Outdated Solution: The current plan is a federal bailout and incentives to encourage Americans to go deeper and deeper in debt and buy lots of cars with only slightly better gas mileage. The Result will be that there are too many cars on the road, polluting the environment and contributing to Global Warming and creating more consumer debt, which was one of the contributing factors to the current economic crisis.

Change indicates that General Motors' real problem was that they were making too many vehicles. We should be building fewer and fewer cars and we should be moving away from the private automobile and toward public transportation. GM and the other auto makers should be mandated as part of the bailout package to build more smart cars (except for public safety vehicles). These smart cars are not meant for long distant driving but only for short hops to the grocer and the park and ride and are really components of a larger public transit system. GM should also be mandated as part of the bailout to actually build buses and train cars. They should also be encouraged to begin building solar panels and wind turbines.

Problem: Some public schools, not all, seem to be performing poorly. Outdated Solution: Institute a comprehensive testing program based on national standards. When that yields only minimum results, increase testing, withhold funding and yell at the parents and insult the teachers. When that fails, continue steps one and two and begin dismantling the schools, firing teachers and sending many of the neediest students into the void. The result: City schools get worse instead of better and the mindless attacks and dismantling of the public schools continue. The old economic philosophy said public is bad and private is good and public schools are very bad.

Change indicates that the solutions do exist, have existed since Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty. Change is going to mean more money for lots of reasons, but mainly because education is labor intensive, there are no short cuts, no quick fixes and no magic bullets. Instead of yelling at teachers, ask them what they think. They know the answers. Instead of blaming an underfunded system while trying to dismantle it, we should fix it. We are beginning to rediscover the necessity for a strong vibrant healthy public sector, where the things we can't do alone, we can do together.

Problem: American prisons are overcrowded, expensive but underfunded, and have a high rate of recidivism. Drug crime continues to grow at an astronomical rate. Budgets for state prisons are over extended and can't even begin to meet the need. The Outdated Solution: Declare a War On Crime. Lock 'em up and throw the key away. Impose mandatory sentences. Institute three strikes and you're out laws. Build more prisons. Build more maximum and super max prisons. Ignore the costs of maintaining a huge system. Develop an inhumane penal system that doesn't treat addicts for their illnesses, doesn't teach the semi-literate to read, and offers little real job training and few GED classes. The American penal system has the largest number of prisoners in the developed world and the most in solitary confinement. It's a system built on revenge, not crime prevention or remediation. The Results: Drug crime continues to get worse. We are fighting drug wars on two different continents, bogged down in three separate countries, not counting our own, fighting drug wars we can't possibly win. Drug crime is up from Chicago to Phoenix. And still the cry is more prisons.

Change Indicates: Finally, in the last month, a national prison reform movement, led by U.S. Senator James Webb is beginning to gain support . The prison reformers advocate that instead of building more prisons, we should be closing prisons. We should be releasing non-violent prisoners, who constitute nearly 50 % of all inmates. We should certainly release non-violent prisoners who are in jail for small drug infractions, probably a fifth of all prisoners. We should work to keep law breakers out of jail with comprehensive probation programs that stress drug rehabilitation, education and meaningful job training. Almost all inmates should be taken out of solitary confinement. All inmates should be given drug rehab, access to meaningful education and job training. We should be looking to Europe for guidance and new ideas.

Change was about the election, but it was more than just about electing Obama. Even Obama doesn't always get it. But the ideas that have guided our country and have helped us as individuals make decisions for the last sixty years, and especially since Reaganomics, simply don't work. They were tried and they failed us miserably. This is both a very frightening time and a very exciting time. We can take this opportunity to not only fix the economy, but built a more sensible society, in tune with our own human needs and the needs of the planet.

Chuck Wemstrom

Mt. Carroll. IL

Who Do We Trust?

Shocking developments are continually being exposed. Gouge, ruse, eager, and easy deception describes greed which has wiggled its way into every facet of our lives, igniting fear of food safety - FDA is self-explanatory - and fiscal and other insecurities.

In the past administration, agencies meant to protect and serve had caved into ideological political party pressures. Even the air we breathe was not safe. The outsourcing of jobs, the fiscal insecurities, and the poor got poorer, the middle class all but disappearing, and the rich got richer. Economically, what trickled down was intense anger.

Nothing is safe when the main objective was/is to earn political points when adding to companies' and the well-heeled riches' bottom lines.

Health & Human Services Dept. has review boards which are a panel of doctors and scientists who must approve any medical drug or devise. The General Accountability Office DID do its job - they registered a fictitious institutional review board, and Human Services flunked the test by giving approval to a fake product which was to be used in medical testing on human subjects.

Even the US Post Office is not immune when they got into the greed game of investing in four multi-million dollar real estate properties. The PO recently lost 50% of the investments. After raising the price of stamps year after year and saying another raise is coming in May 2009, the Postmaster General's sob story is they will run out of money by the end of the year. The US Post Office's job is to deliver services, not the business of investing. Why is the Postmaster General still employed?

Exposure is good for the public, but a step further is needed . . . less political talk and more action of inspectors to protect us and to look into both the agencies' actions and the actions of the politicians who lobby for and vote in accordance with the companies who donated to their re-election campaigns.

Julie Kilpatrick

Hanover, IL

About Water - 2nd in a Series

According to a recent Associated Press release, vast arrays of pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics, ant-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones, have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans. To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs - and over-the-counter medicines - in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

In the course of a 5-month inquiry, the AP discovered that drugs have been detected in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, KY. Water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings unless pressed, the AP noted. For example, the head of one group of California suppliers said the public "doesn't know how to interpret the information," and may become unduly alarmed.

How do drugs get into the water system? When people take medications, their bodies absorb some, but the rest passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated and cleansed, but most treatments do not remove all drug residue.

While some researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of exposure to random low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife. These studies have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public, but the EPA says they recognize that it is a growing concern that they are taking seriously.

The federal government doesn't require any testing or hasn't set safety limits for drugs in water. Of the 62 major water providers contacted by the AP, the drinking water for only 28 was tested. Among the 34 not tested include Chicago, Phoenix, and Miami. Some providers screen for only one or two pharmaceuticals, leaving open the possibility that others are present.

The investigation also indicates that watersheds, the natural sources of most of the nation's water supply, are also contaminated. Tests were conducted in the watersheds of 35 of the 62 major providers surveyed, and pharmaceuticals were detected in 28.

Yet, officials in six of those 28 areas said they did not go on to test their drinking water.

Ron Rendelman

Chadwick, IL