Weekly Review
Forward the Weekly Review using the forward link at
the bottom of the page!
August 5,
2008
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
From the Capitol
|
More Talk On Capital Plan & Education Funding
Reform
Governor Calls
Special Session
This
evening Governor Blagojevich called for a
two day special session to begin on August
12, 2008 to discuss education funding reform
and a capital program. The Governor's
spokesman Lucio Guerrero told the State
Journal-Register (SJ-R) that the Governor
does not intend for lawmakers to take up
state budget cuts during the session.
Guerrero told the SJ-R the governor decided
to call the special session on education
funding after being urged to do so by some
members of the Black Legislative Caucus.
SJ-R reports that Blagojevich wants
lawmakers to consider a plan to
significantly increase school funding backed
by state Sen. James Meeks, which calls for
an income tax increase to provide billions
of extra dollars for schools and other
needs. The legislation, SB 2288, is
supported by the Center for Tax and Budget
Accountability
But the governor opposes the income tax
increase and wants lawmakers to look at
other ways to pay for the increased
spending, Guerrero said. He has supported
selling or leasing the state Lottery and
expanding gambling in the past to accomplish
that goal.
Read SB 2288
More info on SB 2288
Capital Plan Scaled Down, Gaming Out
Last week the four legislative leaders (Rep.
Currie stood in for Speaker Madigan) met to
discuss moving forward on a capital
program. After the meeting, the Governor
announced he would scale back the capital
plan from $34 billion to $25 billion and not
pursue expansion of gaming to pay for the
program. Instead, the Governor said he
would fund the program through a partial
lease of the Illinois State Lottery, Road
Funds and gasoline sales tax revenues.
(Currently gasoline sales tax revenues go
toward the State's General Fund. That means
any gasoline sales taxes diverted from the
GF to a capital program would require more
GF budget cuts).
After the meeting, Representative Currie
told the Chicago Sun Times, "People sold the
lottery as a way of [funding] education, to
take the lottery and use it for some other
purpose, I think, may not sit well with the
people of Illinois."
Currie also said the governor's reluctance
to sign legislation that bars state
officeholders from accepting large political
contributions from government contractors
has fueled mistrust toward the governor
among lawmakers (see below for a review of
campaign funding reform legislation).
Resources:
Recap of the Governor's vetoes and House
overrides
Read CTBA's analysis of FY 2008 revenues -
Revenue misses inflation mark by $155
million
Check Back Here for
CTBA's
FY 2009 Budget Analysis
Coming Soon!
|
Campaign Funding Reform
|
Governor Blagojevich Talks About Ethics
Legislation -
Said he is "Interested in Taking Positive
Action"
HB
824, the bill that would help end "pay to play
politics" unanimously passed the General
Assembly May 31st and sent to the Governor over
a month ago. Thus far the Governor has not
acted on it.
HB824 prohibits businesses with more than
$50,000 in state contracts from making political
donations to constitutional officers who award
the contracts and candidates for those offices.
The ban also applies to a company's owners, top
officials and close family members.
Currently, Illinois has no campaign contribution
limits.
Comptroller Dan Hynes issued a statement last
week urging the Governor to sign the ethics
reform bill Hynes criticized him for accepting
more than $300,000 in campaign contributions the
first half of this year alone from holders of
contracts worth at least $50,000.
Hynes cites that under the ethics legislation
sitting on his desk, $314,214 in contributions
given from January through June 2008 would be
barred. The contractors who gave that money hold
state contracts in the current fiscal year
totaling $270 million.
Hynes takes further issue with Governor
Blagojevich's claim that he opposes HB824 and
all other reform packages proposed in the past
three years because they were not comprehensive
enough. "The governor told us in 2005 that he
was going to rock the system. So far, all he's
done is use the system. If he truly believed in
campaign finance reform, he'd have proposed his
own package. And even without doing that, he
could have voluntarily lived by the constraints
of this legislation."
Illinois Comptroller Hynes is one of the
original architects of the legislation.
Hynes instituted
a similar campaign contribution ban in his own
office more than three years ago and at his
urging, all of the other constitutional
officers, except for the Governor, instituted
the ban as well.
HB 824 sits on the Governor's desk. Blagojevich
can sign it into law, veto the entire bill, or
amendatory veto portions of the bill. In a
press conference yesterday, the Governor stated
he will "take positive action" on the bill. If
so, lawmakers would then need to rally support a
second time to enact the legislation.
Hynes told the State Journal Register, it
appears that Blagojevich wants to amend the
ethics legislation and send it back to lawmakers
in hopes that the revised version will die. "I
don't think the governor is at all sincere in
saying he wants to go further. They've spent the
last three years trying to stop reform," Hynes
said.
Search the Comptroller's
Open Book, a database of state contracts and
campaign contributions.
Visit the
Illinois Campaign for Political Reform's website
Contact the
Governor and tell him to sign the bill into law:
Web Site:
www.illinois.gov/gov
207 Statehouse
Springfield, IL 62706
Phone: (217) 782-0244
Fax: (217) 524-4049
Main District Office:
100 W. Randolph St., Ste. 16-100
Chicago, IL 60601-3220
Phone: (312) 814-2121
Fax: (312) 814-6183
Track HB 824 Here
|
Calendar
|
WHAT:
Inaugural Program of the Adlai Stevenson
Center on Democracy
WHEN:
Sunday August 10, 2008, 4:30 - 6:30 PM
WHERE:
Historic Adlai E. Stevenson home, 25200 N.
St. Mary's Road (about one mile south of Rt. 60)
near Libertyville
INFO:
The Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy is a
newly organized non-profit corporation. Its goal is
to enhance the understanding and practice of
democracy. Non-partisan and non-ideological, its
integrity will enable it to challenge conventional
wisdom with inconvenient truths when necessary, in
keeping with the legacy of Adlai E. Stevenson II.
Bill Kurtis will moderate what will surely be
a lively discussion about the American National
Nominating Process- Then and Now.
Scheduled Speakers and Guests include former
congressmen and presidential candidates
Representative John
Anderson and Senator George McGovern; Indiana
Senator Richard Lugar; Rev. Jesse Jackson;
Representative Mark Kirk; Senator Adlai E. Stevenson
III, and Richard Norton Smith, an expert on
the American presidency and former executive
director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
and Museum.
All are welcome. For more information and to
register, please go to
http://www.stevensoncenterondemocracy.org or
call (312) 337-4933.
WHAT:
League of Women Voters Central Illinois Issues and
Activity Workshop
WHEN:Saturday September 6, 2008, 9:15 to 3:00
WHERE: Inn at 835 - 835 South Second Street,
Springfield, IL
INFO: Issue and voter education program to
focus on constitutional convention, education
funding reform and Illinois student vote.
Registration and Breakfast begins at 8:30. Cost is
$35 for program, breakfast and lunch.
Registration deadline is Monday August 18, 2008.
Register and pay online at www.lwvil.org
|
|
Do you have something to add to the Weekly
Review?
email Chrissy Mancini @
cmancini@ctbaonline.org
___________________________________________________________________________
Center
for Tax and Budget Accountability
70 East Lake Street, Suite 1700
Chicago, IL 60601
312-332-1041
www.ctbaonline.org
|
|
|
