Capitol Fax
I was talking to my mom on the phone last week and just as I was about to hang up she stopped me short and insisted that we talk about Gov. Pat Quinn’s bigtime raises to his top staff.
If you’ve missed the story, Quinn gave out raises of as much as 20 percent to his senior staff while those same people were busily cutting everybody else’s budgets and devising tax increase strategies.
Unlike the state’s mind-boggling $13 billion budget deficit, this is a very easy issue to understand for people who don’t pay close attention to politics.
My mother does follow Illinois politics quite a bit, however, and she appears to be just as incensed about the immorality of handing out selective pay raises during one of the worst fiscal crises in history as she is about the abject political stupidity of Quinn’s decision.
He’s brought it all on himself. “The bottom line is shared sacrifice in tough times,” Quinn told the Daily Herald last spring. “That’s what Americans do.”
Quinn has uttered that “shared sacrifice” line countless times this year as he’s pushed an austere budget and a tax increase. But the complete, utter hypocrisy of calling for “shared sacrifice” from taxpayers, state employees and government vendors on the one hand while dishing out huge pay hikes for his top aides on the other makes me ill.
As you can see, I totally agree with Mom. This is just an incredibly stupid thing to do on almost all possible levels.
I happen to respect Quinn’s budget director David Vaught. He has an impossible, maddening job right now. But he should’ve known better than to accept a 20 percent pay raise while he was slashing state budgets. And Pat Quinn, who has billed himself as “Mr. Populist” for as long as he’s been involved in politics, should’ve known better than to offer Vaught that raise.
The problem here is that this governor has great difficulty applying to his office the same lessons he’s preached to others. For instance, Quinn is in the process of drastically scaling back mobile phone usage by state employees, but he his top aides still use the state’s fleet of turboprop planes.
The governor has bragged about reducing the state’s payroll, but almost all of the high-level officials he’s let go have been provided with golden parachutes. For example, John filan, who once held the job that budget director Vaught now has, was allowed to draw a state paycheck for months after he was eased out as head of the Illinois Finance Authority. Illinois Department of Human Services director Carol Adams was offered a job with the state’s trade office in Africa when she was let go.
As for himself, the governor has turned down a salary increase, often pays his own way when he travels, lives frugally, and is definitely no strutting peacock. You won’t see Pat Quinn spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on new suits and ties like Rod Blagojevich did, or jetting off for Jamaica vacations with millionaire pals like George Ryan did.
Quinn mostly lives what he preaches. And it’s admirable that, as an employer, he wants to take care of “his people.” Plus, the amount of money we’re talking about is just a drop in the ocean of red ink flooding the state.
But the governor needs to somehow come to the realization that the pain he is inflicting via his budget and his other actions is all too real for hundreds of thousands of people who aren’t privileged enough to reside within his inner circle. Services for the mentally ill, seniors and countless others are being wiped out right now. Vendors are going out of business because the state is paying them so late. Nonunion state employees are forced to take furloughs and haven’t had a pay hike in years. Even unionized state workers agreed to delay half of their pay raises this year.
You cannot morally demand austerity from the masses while protecting your friends from harsh realities. It is thoroughly repugnant. And it must end.
Guest Commentary . . .
Gov. Quinn Adds to Illinois’ Fiscal Woes
By Kristina Rasmussen
Did your July start off the right foot? Chances are July 1 was a great day if you’re one of the 46,000 Illinois state employees who received a pay raise.
July 1 was likely a bad day if you work for (or benefit from) the twenty-six state government programs whose funding was reduced by Governor Pat Quinn.
July 1 was assuredly an awful day for taxpayers across Illinois, as the start of the new fiscal year brought few signs from statewide leaders that they’d seriously tackle our state’s growing budget mess.
Chances are you’ve heard of Illinois’s many fiscal woes. We spend too much. Our credit rating is in the crapper. The past-due debt file is overflowing.
Illinois government has real troubles with spending beyond its means, but state leaders won’t own up to it. They’d rather duck the issue by constantly coming up with new plans to push tax hikes, borrow like there’s no tomorrow, and ignore the problem and hope it goes away.
Governor Pat Quinn had an opportunity to confront our fiscal challenges head on with the start of the new fiscal year on July 1. As governor, he wields a mighty veto pen that could have struck hundreds of millions (if not billions) in low-priority spending from the legislature-passed budget plan. Instead, he passed up the chance to right fiscal wrongs by leaving the budget largely untouched.
The governor’s new budget “fix” indicates he’s living in a fiscal fairy tale. His spending adjustment recommendations do not come remotely close to balancing the budget, and he has failed to offer a clean break from the state’s perpetual fiscal mismanagement.
Consider this:
- Compared to the legislature-approved appropriations bill (House Bill 859) for fiscal year 2011, Governor Quinn is reducing expenditures by just $155 million. That’s a reduction of less than one percent. The Department of Human Services spends five times that amount on labor costs and fringe benefits.
- On average, he is cutting the legislature-approved 2011 budget by $12 per Illinois citizen. In 2010, the state spent $2,040 per Illinoisan from general funds appropriations.
- The governor vetoed only one appropriation item from a 2,134-page appropriation bill. A mere twenty-six programs-out of hundreds-had their allocations reduced.
- The governor’s plan does not account for how the state will make its $4 billion pension contribution this year. Wishing and waiting for additional borrowing is not a solution.
Governor Quinn passed up a golden opportunity to make the sensible reductions necessary to align spending with available revenues. By kicking the can down the road once again, Illinois’s fiscal condition will continue to deteriorate to the detriment of Illinois families and businesses.
Despite what Springfield politicians like to claim, balancing the budget can be done. The Illinois Policy Institute’s line-by-line alternative budget, Budget Solutions 2011, provides a clear path for balancing the budget and making the state’s pension contribution-all without a jobs-killing tax hike.
While it’s tempting to write off this year and look beyond the election, Illinois’s rapidly deteriorating financial position means we can’t afford a deny-and-delay approach any longer.
Kristina Rasmussen is the executive vice president with the Illinois Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research organization focused on advancing liberty-based public policy in Illinois.
Illinois Needs Spending Reform
In an attempt to bring the Illinois budget in line with state revenues, Governor Quinn recently announced spending cuts of 1.4 billion. There has been much handwringing about the cuts to education, healthcare and social services – arguably, there are legitimate concerns about cutting services and programs.
Call me cynical, but I think it is far too easy for politicians to play upon the sympathies and fears of the public while calling for a tax increase instead of doing the hard work of cutting government waste and bloat. A quick look at some of this year’s budget allocations and I think you will agree: our current state lawmakers are disconnected with reality.
In the face of deep cuts for education, health care, human services and public safety how can they justify spending $6 million taxpayer dollars for the Museum of Broadcast Communication in Chicago? Or $100 million to study and promote a 3rd Chicago area airport in Peotone and another $175 million to purchase private land for an airport the FAA has not even sanctioned? What about $104, 271 for The Nature Conservancy, or $71,579 for the Chicago Horticultural Society, and $60,198 for the Missouri Botanical Garden? Do we really want $475,000 of our hard-earned tax dollars going to provide programs for homosexual and transgender senior citizens?
That’s the tip of the iceberg.
In addition to unrestrained spending and a time when many Illinois households are scaling back their family budgets, Gov. Quinn handed out an average of 11.4 percent raise to 35 members of his staff and another 40,000 state employees will be getting a 14 percent raise. When have you had a raise like that?
Enough is enough. Illinois needs responsible leaders who don’t exploit taxpayers.
We need to remember how irresponsible our political leaders have been on Election Day.
Sincerely,
David E. Smith
Executive Director
Illinois Family Action
Tinley Park, IL
Hate & Fear
It seems that the Republican politicians have jumped on the immigration band wagon just in time for the November elections. This people will not let a good divisive issue get in their way when running for political office. Representative Sacia is the latest to become a cheerleader for the Arizona Senate Bill 1070 which gives any law enforcement officer the right to stop individuals and ask them for their citizenship papers. These republicans are the people we elect to serve and protect the Constitution of the Country! Oh the hypocrisy! Mr. Sacia and most Republicans are playing to the hate and fear within the Party.
In addition to Mr. Sacia being a cheerleader for the Arizona law, he is even criticizing the Illinois General Assembly for adopting resolution 119 condemning the Arizona law. Well, there are not that many Hispanics in Northwest Illinois.
I’m not a lawyer but I can certainly state why this law is unconstitutional. What are the chances that if a law enforcement officer stops a person, for any reason, with a last name of Sacia, Smith or Jones, will ask them for their citizenship papers? What are the chances if the officer stops a person with a last name of Gonzalez, Villarreal, Rodriguez, etc., etc.? Who will be asked first for citizenship papers? The person with the Hispanic or non-American last name of course! This is racial profiling! Let me put it another way. What would the Republican Politicians, their handlers at Fox Propaganda, and the Republican voters say if the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress pass a law requiring that every person in the Country should carry citizenship papers at all times because they may be asked if they are stopped by law enforcement for any reason? I can guarantee that their heads will explode! Is there a difference between the two laws?
As far as I know, there is no current law in the Country requiring me or anyone else to carry any proof of citizenship as we travel through the country. By letting the Arizona law stand, any person with a Hispanic last name must travel to Arizona with citizenship papers.
I’m glad the U. S. Justice Department has decided to file a lawsuit against the State of Arizona to try and overturn that law which will lead to police harassment of U.S. citizens. It is going to be fun listening to the right radio wing nuts and the Fox propaganda Network. And, if the law is overturn, the Republicans will of course have the “activist” judges to blame, because as we know, any Court decision that goes against the Republicans, must to have been made by some liberal “activist” Judges. Of course, one never knows what the right leaning “activist” Justices in the Supreme Court will do! But they are not “activists”, they are conservative! Remember the 2000 Presidential election. Who did the activists in the Supreme Court and Jeb Bush elect? What a great move that turned out to be!
Paul Gonzalez
Lake Carroll, IL
Gospel Truth
For those citizens opposed to the current lawless regime – it will not enforce our borders, nor stand against voter intimidation – the gospel reading of Sunday, July 4th, Independence Day, has special meaning. In the gospel, the Lord sent out 72 disciples, two by two, charging them with spreading the Good News of salvation. That is exactly what will be happening throughout the summer and fall. People armed with the truth about the nation’s economy, teetering on bankruptcy, will be going out to their neighbors. They will leave them some literature, and ask them to consider, “Is it right to bankrupt our children’s futures?”
Obama came into office, telling us he knew how to fix healthcare in this country. He told us insurance premiums are too high, and doctors would rather do an unnecessary surgery than cure a child. Let’s hate the doctors - that’s the way to fix healthcare! Now, after ObamaCare’s passage, the truth is coming out. Corporations will be dumping their employee health plans, happy to pay a far lower fine. Medicare’s Office of the Actuary figures 51% of employee plans will be dumped, and perhaps more, as a result of the healthcare “reform.”
The Greatest Generation got the rug pulled out from under them, with half a trillion dollars removed from Medicare funding to pay for the intrusive behemoth of a plan.
It’s time Americans got to know their neighbors. Most of us have no knowledge of economics, but we believe the Congressional Budget Office’s judgment that the spending path we are on is “unsustainable.” Our kids and grandkids will pay the price in lost employment and opportunity.
Northern IL Tea Party will meet Thursday, July 22 at 6:30 at 302 W. Main St., Rockton. Y’all come! Call for more information.
Jane Carrell
Roscoe, IL
Capitol Report
By Jim Sacia
State Representative
89th District
I tell you often, “I’m the eternal optimist. We can fix this thing.” I regret to admit that at times it gets me down. Maybe just a minute or two, then I pick myself up, brush off my britches and try to solve the problem.
Thirty years in law enforcement and legalizing medical marijuana in Illinois just don’t go together. I have seen too many good lives ruined. It needs just sixty votes to pass the house. I’m told that the supporters have more than fifty.
In Illinois, the legislation to legalize medical marijuana is Senate Bill 1381 sponsored in the house by my friend Lou Lang (D-Skokie). I recently heard Lou on WBBM radio in Chicago referring to those of us in opposition as being of “Neanderthal mentality”. Okay Lou, I can take the shot. I’m a Neanderthal, but I’m in good company. The bill is opposed by Illinois Chiefs of Police, Illinois Sheriffs Association, Illinois Family Institute, Illinois Police Association, Concerned Christian Americans and many other groups and organizations. On May 5, 2010 the Illinois State Police changed their opposition to “neutral”. If I live to be 100, I’ll never be convinced that they went “neutral” without coaxing from the governor’s office. You know of my profound respect for the ISP but this is a good dose of politics in action.
“Smoked marijuana can never be approved as a medical treatment for any illness because it is an unstable mixture of more than 400 chemicals, many of which are toxic and include several known cancer causing chemicals. Claims otherwise have been proven to be fraudulent and American patients are protected from such medical claims by a century old medical process that requires all approved medicines to be judged ‘safe and effective’ by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA),” so says Robert L. Dupont M.D., the president of the Institute for Behavior and Health Incorporated and the first director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Oh, but then again, as I shared last week Illinois legislators are far smarter than agencies such as the FDA. Medical Marijuana is a cruel hoax. Supporters oppose the use of purified chemical com ponents of marijuana smoke and insist on “smoked dope” or nothing. That should be the first clue that this is nothing but a “sham”. You can’t deliver medicine safely by smoking it.
Marijuana potency is nearly three times more than it was in 1983, and when it’s smoked, its potency is uncontrolled. In 2006 there were 33,854 admissions to treatment centers here in Illinois for marijuana addiction and there is little doubt that marijuana is a gateway drug to cocaine and heroin.
Many have emailed me that I better support this “or else”. Not only will I not support it, I will speak passionately against it.
I will be in Hanover with my mobile office from 11:00AM to 1:00 PM on Friday, July 16, 2010; on my way home I’ll stop at the Elizabeth Fair.
As always, you can reach me, Sally or Barb at or e-mail us at . You can also visit my website at www.jimsacia.com. It’s always a pleasure to hear from you.
