The Mike Bertelsen Project

Seems Governor Pat Quinn has some explaining to do. For one thing he is too much like Blago. Quinn isn't seeing legislative leaders on a regular basis and to top that he has taken on House Speaker Madigan. This means to bring the state legislature back into session this week to perhaps pass a capital plan. Both Dems and Reps are for the plan.....enough votes to pass the House, and the Senate should follow suit.

The Springfield Journal Register has an excellent editorial on what Quinn should do. He'll have to go it alone if he decides to do so. Sometimes there aren't going to be anyone riding shotgun.

I received an e-mail from State Senator Chris Lauzen (R - Aurora) who has some very pertinent information I wanted to convey.

This is part of what Senator Lauzen wrote:

ILLINOIS BUDGET: State taxpayers are sending literally $6.5 Billion (with a "b") more to Springfield this year than they did six years ago when Blagojevich, Jones and Madigan were given by our fellow citizens and their party allies total control over state government. Beware of a multi-billion dollar tax increase after November 4 when they are freshly and firmly re-ensconced in office.

Although, I voted "yes" on the $25B capital plan to rebuild our roads (including Route 47), bridges and schools, Blagojevich-Hastert-Poshard came back for even more, $34B that includes $1B (again, with a "b") for "urban revitalization" -- a euphemism for walking around pork spending for Emil Jones along with $600M in unspecified pork for the four party caucuses and the Governor's office. Proponents of this sloppy and greedy waste should be ashamed of themselves -- no matter which political party they come from.

Note that the capital plan has been scaled down to $ 25 billion dollars by the governor for next week's special legislative session. Also note that there is $600 million in "unspecified" legislative appropriations. All the appropriations should accounted for to stop potential abuses and wasteful spending. I am not for "lump-sum" appropriations and support efforts to stop the practice. Also remember that the capital plan does not have a capital improvement plan (CIP) attached to it. A CIP tells us where ALL the money will be spent BEFORE it's voted on.

Governor Rod Blagojevich has called a special session of the legislature next week. One thing I thought of is the state legislature may find enough time to enjoy the Illinois State Fair and thus help sagging attendance. But back to business. They will go at the bequest of the governor to look at the scaled-down version (from 34 to 25 billion dollars) of the capital plan and public school funding.

First the public school funding issue was brought up by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, who demanded a special session. The ILBC wants to put school funding to the forefront because of the disparity of school district funding based on property taxes versus a tax dollar boost from income taxes. Recently Senator James Meeks (D-Chicago) called for parents to register their children for the upcoming school year at the New Trier Township school district, a wealthy suburban district. This is to be done to protest the funding disparities between intercity and suburban school districts.

Meeks and other African-American legislators have called for a property tax/income tax swap to equalize funding among school districts. Several have said that this plan would raise income taxes. This notion is nothing new. I can remember when Jim Edgar was in office as governor, he tried twice for at least some sort of reduction of the property tax for schools, but he could get no real, serious support and the initiatives failed. Once the plan was dead before any real talk on the issue could get going. Remember Edgar left office in January 1999. That's how long this has been. In Chicago, Meeks said he hoped to see a vote next week on a bill to allow students to go to whatever school district they wished. He also called for a vote on legislation to dismantle the state’s school funding system in 2010, forcing a rewrite of the funding system during the next gubernatorial election year.

I personally don't criticize the idea of this (I've shot the idea out in plenty of tax discussions for the last 12 years), but I have a difficulty accepting that this should be attempted in a special session without so much as a hearing on the issue. What do school administrators have to say? Or even county treasurers (of which I am one)? Since we collect and distribute school district property tax monies, I am a bit curious how an income tax system would operate. Plus how would this effect the property tax levy process? Would income taxes have to be increased? Get my concern? Logistics are a bit involved here!

Well if that's not enough, the capital plan revenue is still up in the air, since the major portion of the revenue is the sale or lease of the lottery. Meeks wanted the sale or lease of the lottery to go to education, but that plan failed. Meeks said he would not vote for the lottery sale or lease to fund construction. Will Senator Meeks appeal for a sale or lease of the lottery for his school tax swap plan? Tune in to find out. Will there be the votes in the House to use the lottery to fund the capital plan. A "test run" in the last special session said no (the vote was for the expansion of gambling licenses), but more House Republicans than who'd thought, voted for the expansion of gambling licenses as a source of revenue. Were they just practicing for what was yet to come? By the way, that initiative failed mainly due to a three-fifths vote needed.

If that's not enough, bring State Senate President Emil Jones into the mix. Jones faces the prospect of the legislative pay raises taking effect while the Senate is in session, opening him and other Democrats to criticism, or should I say more criticism? Jones & Co. have an "out" and that is to reject the raises in this special session. How bad does Mr. Jones and the Senate Democrats want that raise? We'll soon see.

Chicago Tribune Clout Street was a source article for this entry

The talk in Illinois politics since mid-April has been centered around the capital plan proposed by Governor Blagojevich. Recently the governor had dropped the plan from $34 billion to $25 billion. Just how many jobs will the capital plan create? Depends on who you ask! First, there is the 611,000 jobs number when the plan was estimated at the $34 billion level. But now where are we when it comes to the jobs number with the reduction?

Southern Illinois University economics professors Subhash Sharma and Basharat Pitafi were asked to calculate the capital program’s economic impact on Illinois at the behest of SIU President Glenn Poshard. Mr. Poshard and Dennis Hastert, former U.S. House Speaker were chosen by Blagojevich to negotiate with legislative leaders on the capital bill. Sharma came up with numbers for three versions of an Illinois capital bill: $25 billion, $30 billion and $35 billion. His estimated job creation tallies ranged from 443,596 to 611,024. The last number is the usual figure touted by proponents of the capital bill.

The effect of money can be measured as it flows through the economy and theoretically creates more jobs. Jobs are divided into three categories: direct, indirect and induced.

• Direct jobs are those tied directly to the construction projects that would be funded in the capital bill. A construction worker hired to build a road or school is a direct job.
• Indirect jobs are a step removed, but still tied to construction. For example, a concrete company buys more cement because of the capital program, and the cement supplier then has to hire additional workers.
• Induced jobs are those created because the construction workers are spending money from their new jobs. The people hired for induced jobs then spend their money and create more new jobs, and so on. If the construction worker and his friends started taking their families out to eat regularly because they can afford it with their new jobs and the restaurant had to hire additional help, those would be induced jobs.

One other item to consider: the study is using numbers of jobs, not people working. Say for instance if an employee on a job site gets done in Peoria and then goes to Rockford to another job site, that's two jobs and one working.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich announced the $10.9 billion road program for fiscal years 2009 through 2014.In IDOT’s proposed multi-year plan, $7.79 billion will be for the state’s highway system while $3.08 billion will be for local roads. On the state system, $5.6 billion – or almost three-fourths – will be for roadway maintenance, safety and bridge repair.

However is this program being held hostage so that the Illinois Works capital bill goes through? Milton Sees, Illinois Department of Transportation Secretary stated that without the additional infrastructure investment provided by the Illinois Works program, the transportation plan would remain on the shelf. The capital plan is much talked about, however the two revenue streams remain very controversial. Those are sale or lease of the state lottery and the expansion of gambling.

All the people I have talked to are not in favor of gambling expansion. The sale or lease of the lottery is also very unpopular. What to do? The capital plan allies are moving the pieces on the chessboard. The capital plan proponents may use other programs to help sell it. The consensus I get is that without the capital plan, the State of Illinois will come to a complete standstill. This shouldn't have to be.

Budget components should include enough highway and bridge projects to keep Illinois moving forward. Match money of $1.5 billion should be appropriated so that Illinois can receive $6 billion in federal road and bridge money. As far as I know, this match money is not in the current FY 09 budget.

Opponents to the capital plan are on ice that's getting thinner by the moment if the Governor keeps saying that certain programs aren't going to fly without the Illinois Works capital plan.

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