http://www.weareillinois.org We Are Illinois: ILGOP en-us
Gov. Pat Quinn gives his State of the State address today, but even without hearing it we could sum it up in one word: Lousy.

It's lousy that the state is drowning in debt; it's lousy that Quinn and lawmakers spent the past year dodging tough decisions; and it's lousy that now they're talking about walking away from their obligations on downstate teacher pensions.

Quinn and Democratic legislative leaders want to stop paying into the teacher pension funds and make local school districts do so. That would mean $800 million in new expenses for local districts -- in other words, property taxpayers.


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12199 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12199 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:07:09 GMT
“Since 2010, Republican and Democrat Governors across the United States have implemented sweeping reforms and made tough choices to improve their states' financial conditions. Unfortunately, Governor Quinn’s State of the State Address today confirms that he has no comprehensive plan for dealing with the near catastrophic fiscal condition of our state or the political courage to make the reforms necessary for Illinois to have a government that it can afford.”



]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12198 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12198 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:56:16 GMT
One especially telling aspect of Illinois’ financial mess is the fact that, no matter how much doom you see in it, no one will call you Chicken Little.

The latest case in point comes courtesy of the Civic Federation, a nonpartisan, Chicago-based budget watchdog group that for years has warned that the state’s fiscal sky is falling — or is in grave danger of doing so — under the weight of ever-growing public pension and healthcare demands. (The Civic Federation should not be confused with the Civic Committee, an arm of the Commercial Club of Chicago that has actively pushed for pension reform.)

In the report it issued this week, though, the Civic Federation sounds a credible alarm the likes of which we have not heard before.

Citing data from the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, the group forecasts that within five years, rising Medicaid costs will lead to $21 billion in unpaid Medicaid bills for the state. The Medicaid bills will be the biggest chunk of what the Civic Federation projects will be, without immediate and significant action, a total backlog of $34.8 billion in unpaid bills by the end of fiscal 2017. To put it in perspective, the budget for fiscal 2012 projects the state will take in $33.9 billion in general funds, from which day-to-day government operations are funded. In five years, our unpaid bills will dwarf that by $900 million, according to the Civic Federation.

We were still coming to grips with Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka’s quarterly report, which was issued a few weeks back and estimates the state now is $8.5 billion in arrears on its bills (including bills owed but not yet submitted to the comptroller for payment).


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12197 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12197 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:01:07 GMT
President Barack Obama knows the federal government has a big spending problem, and he is not reluctant to point it out. "The American people deserve to have their leaders come together to make the tough choices necessary to live within our means, just as American families do every day in these tough economic times," the White House said in November.

In his State of the Union address, Obama was not so keen on preaching austerity. As part of his plan to create an economy that is "built to last," he said it's necessary to "pay down our debt and invest in our future."

The phrase "invest in our future," we regret to report, is Washington-speak for "spend money." And in the current fiscal context, that means "spend money we don't have."

His speech to Congress contained a litany of new spending programs, from creating a new "Trade Enforcement Unit" to helping out homeowners who haven't been able to refinance their mortgages. Each one, taken by itself, can be defended. But added together, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation reports, they would require more than $20 billion in new spending.

The president says that doesn't matter because defense spending will be coming down by some $48 billion, for a net saving of about $28 billion. That sounds pretty good — until you consider that next year (according to the fiscal watchdog Concord Coalition), the government will most likely run a deficit of about $1 trillion.

What part of "fiscal crisis" does the administration not understand? On Friday, the federal debt ceiling was raised by $1.2 trillion, bringing it to a staggering $16.394 trillion — double what it was in 2005. And it's going to keep rising in the years to come.

When you are that deep in the hole, you need to focus on eliminating expenditures, not adding them. The defense savings are a start, but they're no excuse to gin up new outlays in other parts of the budget. Even by themselves, the defense savings amount to less than 5 percent of next year's deficit.

If the president wants to boost expenditures in one nondefense program, he should pay for it by reducing it in another. Better yet, he should cut $2 or $3 in nondefense programs for every $1 in new nondefense spending.

The excuse that we are "investing" in the future has been used way too often to excuse fiscal bloat. The best investment in our future is to lighten the burdens that will fall on the taxpayers of tomorrow.

For that matter, the promise to "pay down our debt," which the president made twice in his address, is false. Republicans and Democrats are not arguing about how to pay down debt. They're arguing about how quickly or slowly we will continue to accumulate debt.

Obama says he wants to foster the long-term health of the economy. But it looks as though Washington's habit of living beyond its means is built to last.


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12192 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12192 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:15:20 GMT
A year ago, Gov. Pat Quinn and his fellow Democrats assured Illinois taxpayers: Yes, their huge income tax increase on families and employers — rammed into law without a single Republican vote — really would roll back at the end of calendar 2014. "A portion of this tax (increase) is going to expire in four years," Senate President John Cullerton said on that fateful 1/11/11. "This, again, is a temporary tax." House Speaker Michael Madigan concurred.

Their failure to pass serious pension reforms throughout 2011 aggravates suspicions that the Democrats have no intention of allowing their tax increase to go away. Now comes the Civic Federation of Chicago — budget watchdog and public finance think tank — with an alarming analysis of state government's trajectory. The clear takeaway: Without spending reform, Illinois faces perpetual insolvency.

So tell the 12.8 million of us right now, Governor: Do you and your fellow Democrats intend to make crucial spending decisions right now? Or do you want to make your tax increases permanent? Your answer is crucial: Over the year since you enacted those damaging increases, Illinois' unemployment rate has generally trended up, even as the national rate has declined.

You have two excellent chances, Governor, to be candid with all of us about your plans: your State of the State address Wednesday, and your annual budget speech Feb. 22. If you and your spending plans don't prepare to allow those tax increases to be "temporary," forgive us for concluding that you'd like to make them permanent.

The Civic Federation's report, to be released Monday, offers 54 pages of disturbing trends in state spending, debt and unfunded obligations. The document is nonpartisan and spin-free, projecting five years in which — given rising pension and Medicaid costs — state government will sink deeper into distress.

Without remedies from the governor and Legislature, the federation projects, Illinois' unpaid bills could rise from a dreadful $9.2 billion at the end of fiscal 2012 to $34.8 billion at the end of fiscal 2017. That would be more money than lawmakers and Quinn expect to spend from general funds — the day-to-day cost of state operations — in this entire fiscal year.

The Civic Fed report illustrates, in readable detail, what citizens already see: With so many dollars preordained for pension systems and Medicaid payments, spending on other priorities — schools, public safety and so forth — likely will constrict. Among other findings:

• The cost of funding pension systems is exploding, up from 8.9 percent of general funds spending in fiscal 2008 to 17.1 percent this year — and an expected 21.6 percent in 2017.

• Even as the cost of group health insurance for state employees will keep rising (by an expected 39 percent over five years), "roughly 91 percent of the 81,900 retirees covered by the group insurance program do not pay any premiums for their coverage."

• Downbeat financial projections issued Jan. 3 by Quinn's office understate the full annual costs of Medicaid and health insurance — "and do not address the increase in unpaid bills."

The report explains numerous fixes Illinois pols can employ to break their addictions to current spending and debt obligations. Those include:

• The long overdue pension changes.

• No more borrowing for operations or old bills, the better to constrain debt service costs.

• More aggressive Medicaid reform.

• No bargaining unit pay hikes "for the foreseeable future."

• Taxing federally taxable Social Security and other retirement income.

• Raising the cigarette tax from 98 cents per pack to $1.98.

• Retirees' participation in their health care costs.

• No more economic development incentives until lawmakers set a comprehensive incentive policy — and examine whether incentives do or don't work as intended.

All of us can debate these and other Civic Fed proposals. But we suspect many politicians would rather take an easy route this report doesn't suggest: renewing the "temporary" income tax hikes for years beyond 2014.

Tell us, Governor, where you stand. Candor in these two speeches might restore some of the credibility lost when you (a) pledged during the 2010 campaign to veto any personal income tax increase above 1 percentage point and (b) after the election, signed your 2-percentage-point increase into law.

Tell every Illinoisan, Governor, that "temporary" does not mean "permanent."


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12191 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12191 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:11:52 GMT
Rep. Jan Schakowsky appeared on the Don Wade and Roma show on WLS-AM Chicago to comment on President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. Schakowsky praised the president’s green energy initiatives, claiming that the (recalled) Chevy Volt “is doing pretty well” and defending Obama’s failed investment in Solyndra.

When the hosts asked her to defend President Obama’s decision to block the development of the Keystone pipeline, Schakowsky did not dispute that the project would create jobs, but denied that these jobs were significant:

Twenty thousand jobs is really not that many jobs and investing in green technologies will produce that and more. But I’ll tell you what, you know it seems to me that the Republicans would rather have an issue than a pipeline.


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12183 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12183 Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:00:26 GMT



]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12180 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12180 Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:46:54 GMT
"Our revenue growth is not enough to keep up with pensions and Medicaid. It creates a squeeze for everything else."

Illinois Budget Director David Vaught, Jan. 3, 2012

Think back to 1/11/11, the night Democrats in the General Assembly raised personal and corporate income taxes by 67 and 46 percent. That legislation didn't cut spending by one dime. Never forget the assurances, though, that these tax increases would pay the state's debts and prevent future budget deficits:

Senate President John Cullerton: "The purpose of this bill is to raise enough money so that we can continue to pay our pensions without borrowing the money. To pay off our debt. To have enough money to pay the interest on that debt. And, for the first time ever, establish caps on how much we can appropriate. ... We have just come through the worst economic crisis in our lifetimes. And we have not paid our bills."

And House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie: "Remember, the point of this income tax increase is not to expand programs, not to do brand-new things in Illinois state government. It is only intended to pay our old bills and deal with the structural deficit."

Gov. Pat Quinn antiseptically refers to his fellow Democrats' vote that night on the "revenue bill." Much as he refers to the new borrowing he proposes as "restructuring." One year later, though, stand back with us and look at all their carnage:

• Earlier this month, Moody's Investors Service cited "weak management practices" when it awarded Illinois the nation's lowest credit rating. Standard & Poor's added insult to injury: "If Illinois does not make meaningful changes to further align revenue and spending and address its accumulated deficit (accounts payable and general fund liabilities) for fiscal years 2012 and 2013, we could lower the rating this year. … A downgrade could also be triggered if pension funding levels continue to deteriorate or debt levels increase significantly …"

• As David Vaught unwittingly attests, lawmakers continue to spend too much of other people's money. Quinn's office now expects this fiscal year's supposedly balanced budget to finish $507 million in the red. That's right, even with $7 billion a year in new revenue from their tax hikes, this crowd still can't balance a budget.

• Let alone pay those old bills. A new report from Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka carries the headline, "Backlog persists despite new revenue." Deadbeat Illinois owes some $8.5 billion in old bills, tax refunds, employee health insurance and interfund borrowing debts. That's roughly one-fourth of the state's spending this year from its general funds.

Democrats pretend they shouldn't be held responsible for the old bills because, when they passed the tax hikes, the Legislature didn't approve a companion plan to borrow billions for bill payments. This is pure sophistry. By the time the Senate approved the tax hike, the House already had departed without approving that companion debt proposal. It was dead.

And let's give thanks for that. Illinois already has nearly $200 billion in debts and unfunded obligations. Every dollar squandered on debt service can't be spent on education, health care, public safety — all the services Illinois wants to provide.

So Vaught is more right than he may want to admit: Until Illinois lowers its overhead (pension and Medicaid costs, that's you), even tax hikes can't, in truth, relieve "a squeeze for everything else."

That probably won't change until lawmakers cut their spending on that unaffordable overhead and deploy more tax hike revenue to pay old bills. Remember, the only reason Illinois has any old bills is that Springfield spent more money, and promised public employees far more in retirement perks, than revenues justified.

Worst of all, perhaps, the Democrats' tax increases are stifling the economic growth that would boost those revenues. With their votes, they made Illinois an even higher-cost state for job creators.

The tax hikers trust that, in the 2012 election cycle, you won't notice that their assurances of 2011 have fallen flat. Here are the Democrats you can thank for their failed promises — and your pay cut:

HOUSE: Edward Acevedo, Chicago; Luis Arroyo, Chicago; Daniel Beiser, Alton; Maria Antonia Berrios, Chicago; Mike Boland, East Moline; John Bradley, Marion; Daniel Burke, Chicago; Will Burns, Chicago; Michael Carberry, Oak Lawn; Linda Chapa LaVia, Aurora; Annazette Collins, Chicago; Marlow Colvin, Chicago; Barbara Flynn Currie, Chicago; Monique Davis, Chicago; William Davis, Homewood; Anthony DeLuca, Chicago Heights; Lisa Dugan, Bradley; Ken Dunkin, Chicago; Sara Feigenholtz, Chicago; Robert Flider, Mount Zion; Mary Flowers, Chicago; LaShawn Ford, Chicago; Paul Froehlich, Schaumburg; Robyn Gabel, Evanston; Esther Golar, Chicago; Careen Gordon, Morris; Betsy Hannig, Gillespie; Greg Harris, Chicago; Elizabeth Hernandez, Cicero; Jay Hoffman, Collinsville; Thomas Holbrook, Belleville; Constance Howard, Chicago; Eddie Lee Jackson, East St. Louis; Naomi Jakobsson, Urbana; Charles Jefferson, Rockford; Lou Lang, Skokie; Camille Lilly, Chicago; Joseph Lyons, Chicago; Michael Madigan, Chicago; Frank Mautino, Spring Valley; Karen May, Highland Park; Rita Mayfield, Waukegan; Kevin McCarthy, Orland Park; Jack McGuire, Joliet; Susana Mendoza, Chicago; David Miller, Lynwood; Kathleen Moore, Chicago; Elaine Nekritz, Northbrook; John O'Sullivan, Worth Township; Dan Reitz, Steeleville; Al Riley, Olympia Fields; Robert Rita, Blue Island; Michael Smith, Canton; Cynthia Soto, Chicago; Andre Thapedi, Chicago; Arthur Turner, Chicago; Patrick Verschoore, Milan; Mark Walker, Arlington Heights; Karen Yarbrough, Maywood; Michael Zalewski, Chicago.

SENATE: James Clayborne, Belleville; Jacqueline Collins, Chicago; Maggie Crotty, Oak Forest; John Cullerton, Chicago; William Delgado, Chicago; Deanna Demuzio, Carlinville; Michael Frerichs, Gifford; William Haine, Alton; Don Harmon, Oak Park; Rickey Hendon, Chicago; Linda Holmes, Aurora; Mattie Hunter, Chicago; Toi Hutchinson, Olympia Fields; Mike Jacobs, East Moline; Emil Jones III, Chicago; David Koehler, Peoria; Dan Kotowski, Park Ridge; Kimberly Lightford, Maywood; Terry Link, Waukegan; Edward Maloney, Chicago; Iris Martinez, Chicago; John Mulroe, Chicago; Antonio Munoz, Chicago; Kwame Raoul, Chicago; Martin Sandoval, Cicero; Jeff Schoenberg, Evanston; Heather Steans, Chicago; Donne Trotter, Chicago; Louis Viverito, Burbank; A.J. Wilhelmi, Joliet.


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12175 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12175 Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:29:58 GMT
“I join all Illinoisans today in praying for Senator Mark Kirk and his family and staff. Mark has always been a tireless fighter in our military and in Congress, and I know that continues today with his recovery.”



]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12173 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12173 Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:28:08 GMT
Once there were five candidates for Cook County judge in a Southwest Side district dominated by Democratic boss Mike Madigan.

There was the incumbent judge, who had been a criminal attorney for 20 years before his appointment last year. There was also an attorney for the city of Chicago, a public defender and an assistant Illinois attorney general.

And there was that fifth candidate, who suffered from an acute shortage of legal experience.

But what does experience matter when it comes time to don the black robes and dance along The Chicago Way?


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12164 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12164 Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:47:36 GMT
Run up spending and debt, raise taxes in the naming of balancing the budget, but then watch as deficits rise and your credit-rating falls anyway. That's been the sad pattern in Europe, and now it's hitting that mecca of tax-and-spend government known as Illinois.

Though too few noticed, this month Moody's downgraded Illinois state debt to A2 from A1, the lowest among the 50 states. That's worse even than California. The state's cost of borrowing for $800 million of new 10-year general obligation bonds rose to 3.1%—which is 110 ...




]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12163 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12163 Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:12:44 GMT
One year into his chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, Mr. Priebus will soon be announcing the fruits of his 2011 labors, and the news is that the GOP is (finally) back in the money game. The party may not have a nominee, but what it does have is an organization that looks ever more able to support one.

A source confides that the RNC landed $27 million in the fourth quarter, bringing its year-end fund-raising total to a sizable $87 million. Nearly $12 million was collected in December alone, the largest monthly sum in a non-election year since the early George W. Bush days. This also marks four out of the past five months that the RNC has beat its Democratic counterpart—despite President Obama's formidable fund-raising powers.

These numbers are noteworthy in the absolute; they are striking in the relative. Two years ago, the RNC was the political equivalent of vaudeville, its chairman, Michael Steele, more interested in center stage than the fundamentals of fund raising and organizing. In a year that should have created a tea party-fueled slam dunk, the RNC alienated top donors, frittered away crucial dollars, and spread itself too thin to deliver on prime opportunities.

The Republican House victory in 2010 was despite the party, not because of it. And the RNC's lack of money and focus helped lose several crucial Senate seats, the ramifications of which go beyond 2012. Even if Republicans retake the Senate this fall, they will be less able to reverse the Obama agenda than they would have been with a stellar 2010. If the midterms proved anything, it was that no number of Super PACS can replace a well-moneyed, well-organized party machine. And the GOP didn't have one.

Nor was Mr. Priebus viewed as an obvious savior. The former Wisconsin Republican Party chairman was criticized as too young, too untested, too mild-mannered. It took an acrimonious contest and an unprecedented seven ballots for Mr. Priebus to cobble together enough committee-member votes to get the RNC job. He walked into headquarters facing $24 million in debt and was told the group didn't even have enough money to cover the postage for an initial fund-raising effort.

Republicans who know the Wisconsinite say his response was to spend a year sweating the boring stuff. He's cut expenses and staff, getting fund-raising costs below the 50% mark (down from 62%). He's been putting new focus on voter registration and turnout operations. He does TV and speeches, though he picks his spots. Mostly, he's to be found personally coaxing back those crucial, big-dollar donors.

Of all the numbers the RNC is releasing, it is this one that has GOP operatives the happiest. In 2009, Mr. Steele raised $3 million from "major donors" (those giving $15,000 or more). The RNC will be announcing that in 2011 it raised $24 million from this crowd—an all-time record for the party in a non-election year. By the end of 2010, a big midterm election year, the RNC counted 100 donors who had given $15,000 or more. A year later, that number sits at 943.

These figures suggest Republicans are regaining confidence in the RNC, and with that, a new enthusiasm for committing money to beat Mr. Obama. Heads of Super PACs report similar findings. Donors, they say, are less insistent than in 2010 on supporting only purist, tea-party candidates. The past two years have been sobering, and they are increasingly focused on the end prize of the White House and the Senate. They are writing checks, and big ones.

On that point, the conventional wisdom was always that Super PACs had benefited from the RNC's crisis. In truth, the donors who quit giving money to the RNC weren't instead writing checks to Super PACs; they weren't giving money, period. Both the party and outside groups are today registering a wave of dollars, and the Super PACs are only too happy to once again have an RNC able to lead.

The Republicans will need every penny. The president's perch gives him a fund-raising advantage, and the White House is using the "broken" (Mr. Obama's words) campaign-finance system to its full advantage. Kick in several hundred million from the unions, and mix in the Democratic National Committee and the Democrats' own Super PACs, and the left will come into this race plenty flush.

Mr. Priebus's hardest work is still ahead—in matching that Democratic momentum, and in proving he can run a ground game in November. Much, too, is going to depend on whether this Republican primary scrap produces a nominee able to further harness voter energy and money. The nominee will at least have something to work with in the RNC. Considering recent history, that's no small thing.


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12152 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12152 Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:10:12 GMT
Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno and House Minority Leader Tom Cross said the hike hasn't been a solution to the state's fiscal problems and are instead hurting the state's working families.

Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation last year that raised the personal tax rate to five percent from three percent for four years. The goal was to help bring Illinois out of its deepest budget hole in history.

But a report Thursday by the Illinois Policy Institute claims the increase made Illinois less competitive for business and had other negative impacts.

"One year later, the verdict is in: the tax hike policy is a failure," said John Tillman, the CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute.

Months after the hike was raised, the state reported collecting more money than it collected in 2010, but the leaders say spending hasn't decreased, so the state's financial picture isn't improving.

Cross listed Medicaid, AFSCME contracts and pensions as areas where spending cuts could be made to save the state billions of dollars.


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12151 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12151 Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:08:03 GMT

]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12146 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12146 Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:29:32 GMT
The Illinois Legislature has passed and the governor has signed a "landmark new reform law to finally bring an end to fraud and abuse in Illinois' public pension systems," according to the bill's sponsor in the House, Republican Minority Leader Tom Cross.

Yes, well, that should take care of it, since the rule of law has long engendered such respect in the Land of Lincoln.

Oh, one doesn't mean to make light of the effort to close some glaring loopholes in Illinois' pension systems that have allowed the unethical to drive a semi-truck through them. It's just that one is a bit jaded by Illinois' tradition of corruption, with two former governors about to be sitting simultaneously in federal prison not the extent of it, not by a long shot.

Specifically the legislation would prevent double-dipping of the kind practiced by Chicago-area union officials who took part in pension plans provided by their unions and by their former municipal public employers, while drawing retirements from taxpayers based not on the work they did for taxpayers but on the much-higher compensation they received as top union officials extracting money from taxpayers. That 1991 law is now history.

In addition, the new measure erases a 2007 law exploited by a couple of Illinois Federation of Teachers lobbyists, Steven Preckwinkle and David Piccioli of Springfield, who substituted in a classroom for one day - you read that right, one day - to make themselves eligible for hefty and wholly undeserved pensions from the Teachers Retirement System, allowing them to collect millions over their expected lifetimes. This page has read some of the apologists for these two as people, but they must also be judged on their actions in this instance, and frankly it doesn't get much more greedy or galling. If anyone was looking for a couple of poster children for everything that's wrong with the way Illinois allows itself to be governed, well, consider them found.

Alas, there is no shame in Illinois politics, as Preckwinkle and Piccioli have, far from backing down from their indefensible position, instead reportedly hired a spokesman to plead their case that the new law is unconstitutional. Unfortunately and infuriatingly, they may be right, as they were playing by the rules at the time, no matter how wrong they were. Make no mistake, this is a retroactive repeal of those benefits, which does have some legislative leaders more than a little uneasy, though it happens in the private sector all the time. Let's just say that the union stained by its employment of these two should not feign surprise when it wants something out of Springfield and it's not forthcoming. The IFT should be getting an earful from its members..

Beyond that, the new legislation also puts the onus on pension board members and directors to report any suspicions of fraud to local state's attorneys.

The problem is that you get a reform like this and sometimes legislators think that's enough. In fact it's easy to correct what Gov. Pat Quinn characterized as the "flagrant" abuses. It's much harder to address the systemic cracks of the kind that have put Illinois in the pickle it's in, with the largest unfunded pension liability in America by a large margin. It comes down to this: Retirement benefits have become too rich relative to a private sector that is paying the vast majority of the bills, and too rich for a Legislature that obviously has been unable to keep up with its obligations for decades now. As a result, bills for yesterday's services are now crowding out payment for today's. Absolutely the Legislature is to blame for that, and absolutely state workers who kept their end of the bargain have every right to be livid about it, but the math is what it is.

That has to change, or Illinois is beyond repair.

It's worth noting that the rating agency Moody's downgraded Illinois' long-term debt rating last week, citing state government's inability to confront its pension crisis and its bottomless ocean of unpaid bills. That of course will make it that much more difficult to use borrowing as one tool to get out of this mess because of the higher interest rates the state will have to pay. Reportedly Illinois may have the worst rating in the nation, vying with California for last place. About the only response the governor's office could muster was that they were "encouraged" that two other rating agencies - Fitch and Standard & Poor's - saw fit to sit tight.

For now.

Expect this to be one very nasty spring session in Springfield if you're a public employee counting on a certain level of retirement income. This wave of reform has been building into a tsunami for a very long time.


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12143 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12143 Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:52:07 GMT
Brady continued, “Unfortunately for our country, Obama brought these failed policies to Washington and has left us worse off than we were before he took office. At a time when Illinois is in desperate need of strong leadership from Washington, President Obama continues to cement himself as part of the problem.”


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12142 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12142 Wed, 11 Jan 2012 02:45:21 GMT
Brady continued, “In Madigan’s world, sound public policy long ago took a back seat to accumulating power and self-enrichment. Illinois deserves better.”



]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12140 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12140 Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:28:02 GMT
Illinois had its general-obligation bond rating reduced by Moody’s Investors Service to A2 from A1, making it the company’s lowest-graded U.S. state.

The downgrade to the sixth-highest rating came after a legislative session that “took no steps to implement lasting solutions to its severe pension under-funding or to its chronic bill payment delays,” Moody’s said in a report. Illinois, it said, has “weak management practices.”

Moody’s revised its outlook on the debt to stable from negative, citing the state’s sovereign power over revenue and spending, and laws that establish the priority of payment for general-obligation bonds. The downgrade affects $32 billion of debt, according to the statement.

“Although the state has taken positive steps toward fiscal stability, swift bipartisan action to implement further cost reductions and reforms in the upcoming legislative session are needed to stabilize the budget,” Kelly Kraft, a spokeswoman for Governor Pat Quinn, said in a statement.

Illinois, the fifth-most-populous U.S. state, plans to sell $800 million in taxable and tax-exempt general-obligation bonds as soon as Jan. 11.


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12139 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12139 Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:30:08 GMT
The state’s Republican chairman says it’s time for the attorney general to start investigating corruption in Springfield.

Illinois Republican Chairman Pat Brady says when Attorney General Lisa Madigan first ran for office, she said she was going to be independent from her father. Brady says that hasn’t happened.

“What you’ve seen in the last six or eight months, well chronicled instances of fraud and public corruption, some involving her father some involving others, and she hasn’t lifted a finger to investigate them,” Brady said.

In particular, the House passed a bill that would allow two Illinois Federation of Teachers lobbyists the right to continue collecting a teacher’s pension even though both spent only a day in the classroom. One of the top lawyers for House Speaker Mike Madigan’s (D-Chicago) argued in favor of the bill.

But Lisa Madigan says she has investigated political corruption and points to convicted ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

“I was the first person to start investigating Rod Blagojevich,” Madigan said. “I didn’t endorse Rod Blagojevich in 2006.” She went on to add that there is much to do to clean up after Blagojevich and imprisoned ex-Gov. George Ryan.

Still, Brady says with the Mike Madigan leading the House and cutting deals for “political pals and lobbyists,” and Lisa Madigan in her role, the state essentially doesn’t have an attorney general. “She has to explain to the people why she hasn’t done anything,” Brady said.


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12136 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12136 Sat, 31 Dec 2011 07:33:28 GMT
Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady issued the following statement:

“The Illinois Republican Party disavows any association with the candidacy of Arthur Jones and ask that all citizens of Illinois do the same. His views and previous statements are repugnant and his candidacy should not and will not be supported in any way by the Illinois Republican Party. Unfortunately, pathetic and ignorant human beings like Arthur Jones still exist - my sympathies are with the members of our Jewish community as well as other communities to which Mr. Jones has directed his hate.”



]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12134 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12134 Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:32:01 GMT
The Chicago offices for Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka and Illinois State Treasurer Dan Rutherford are next to each other on the 15th floor of the Thompson Center, separated only by a corridor. If Topinka and Rutherford had their way, the divide would disappear entirely.

The pair, both Republicans, introduced legislation in the General Assembly earlier this year to merge the state’s two financial offices, which they said would save about $12 million per year. The measure, which would create a new, single office called the Comptroller of the State Treasury, unanimously passed the Senate on March 31 and attracted 50 sponsors in the House. But it has been held up by Michael Madigan, the state’s influential House speaker.

Madigan (D-Chicago) believes the offices should remain separate, in part because of a scandal that erupted more than 50 years ago.

“You have to deal with the safeguards that led to the creation of the two offices,” Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said. “Until it does, it’s not a viable bill in the speaker’s mind.”

Madigan, Brown said, is wary of eliminating the checks that led to the state’s former auditor being imprisoned for embezzlement. Orville Hodge, the state auditor from 1952 to 1956, was jailed for more than six years after he was found to have stolen over $1.5 million from the state. Hodge covered his tracks initially by falsifying checks and creating a fake paper trail, all while buying two private jets, new cars, property in Florida and a lake house in Springfield.

Delegates to Illinois’ constitutional convention in 1970 sought to create better oversight of the office charged with managing the state’s money and divided the position in two. The treasurer’s office invests the state’s money while the comptroller manages the state’s day-to-day checking account.

But changes in technology and the creation of a statewide auditor, who inspects the books of both offices, have eliminated the possibility of a financial scandal similar to Hodge’s, Rutherford and Topinka said.

“We are a very transparent, electronic system,” Rutherford said of the financial management processes in the treasurer’s office. “There is no cash, or certificates, sitting in a vault in my office that someone could walk away with.”

Topinka and Rutherford said they could save the state about $12 million each year by reducing staff and sharing office space and technology. Together, the two offices employ about 425 people.

“There is no downside to this bill. Absolutely no downside,” said Topinka, who also served as treasurer from 1994 to 2007. “How can you refuse the low-hanging fruit of combining two offices, which makes eminently good sense, to save $12 million annually?”

Topinka said 23 states have one statewide financial officer, and “they’re doing just fine.”

The legislation to consolidate the two offices remains stalled in the House rules committee, which is made up of three Democrats who are part of Madigan’s leadership team and two Republicans.

In January, House Republicans attempted to change House protocol. Any bill supported by 71 or more members—a super majority—would automatically be discharged from the rules committee under a proposal introduced by House Republican Leader Tom Cross.

“It is not reasonable to grant any one House member the authority to prevent House consideration of legislation that is supported by most House members,” Cross wrote of the proposal.

That measure went nowhere.

“All I’m asking of him is look, gimme a vote straight up or down,” Topinka said of Madigan, who is also chairman of the state Democratic party.

But Brown said the speaker would not call the bill and let lawmakers decide because the legislation is “not in very good shape.”

Rutherford suggested that politics may also factor in to Madigan’s reticence to advance the bill, which would eliminate an office that has been used as a stepping stone to higher office.

“The majority of people in these positions over four decades have been Democrats,” Rutherford said. “And this is a pretty Democratic state.”


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12133 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12133 Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:28:52 GMT
Late last month, the House voted to send the governor a measure that would stop the practice of basing public pensions on heftier union salaries and kick two well-paid teacher union lobbyists out of a public pension system they were able to join after substitute teaching for a single day.

The new legislation would make an exception for current union officials who are on leaves of absence from their regular jobs to get the more lucrative pensions. The latest measure also would let those two teacher union lobbyists stay in the teacher pension system.

House Republicans accused the Democrats of trying to blow a hole in the pension abuse legislation.

But Democratic Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Orland Park said he's sponsoring the revised version because the other one could run afoul of the state's constitution. The reason, he said, is because it would reduce benefits of current union leaders and potentially some retirees. The points reflected concerns of the city laborers retirement fund, whose leaders warned that the legislation lawmakers already passed would trigger lawsuits. McCarthy's legislation would prevent future cases of abuse.

Republican Rep. Darlene Senger of Naperville dismissed the constitutional arguments, saying she was "very suspicious" of the Democratic push. She noted that federal subpoenas have sought information about the inflated salaries of Chicago union officials revealed in reports by the Tribune and WGN-TV.

"We're trying to do our best here to make sure that we come up with something that halts the abuses," Senger said.

Republicans also feared the new bill would allow current union members who are double-dipping in Chicago public pensions and union pensions to keep doing it despite attempts to stop it in the prior bill.

A House panel approved the revised pension legislation Sunday afternoon. It could go before the full House on Monday.

The earlier bill, now awaiting action by Gov. Pat Quinn, would boot from the Illinois Teachers' Retirement System Steven Preckwinkle and David Piccioli. The two lobbyists for the Illinois Federation of Teachers took advantage of a 2007 law that allowed them to become eligible for a public pension by subbing for one day.

McCarthy said the Senate could address the lobbyist matter by passing a separate bill the House approved that also would knock the two lobbyists from the teacher pension fund.


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12110 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12110 Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:45:35 GMT
By John Kass - Chicago Tribune Columnist

It was great to see our heroic Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan — the state's top law enforcement officer and daughter of the undisputed Democratic machine boss — finally hold a corrupt politician accountable.

She smacked former Illinois Gov. Rod "New Fish" Blagojevich right in the wallet last week, after New Fish was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison on corruption charges. She issued a legal opinion saying those who commit corrupt acts through public office should not be rewarded with a $65,000-a-year state pension.

How true.

"Blagojevich refused to govern responsibly and, instead, put Illinois up for sale," she said. "He tarnished the state's reputation nationally and internationally, and he destroyed the public's trust in government. May today's sentence put an end to corruption in the Illinois' governor's office."

But Lisa, what about elsewhere in Illinois? Not just in the governor's office, but outside the governor's office, too. It's the kind of thing that makes all of us Illinois chumbolones want to sing:

Where have you gone, Lisa Madigan? / Our crooked state turns its lonely eyes to you / Woo-woo-woo.

And she can begin at the Sunday dinner table, just after she asks, "Daddy, would you please pass the sliced apples?"

It's not that our Heroic Lisa isn't already working to right wrongs. A quick Google check shows she's going after an auto parts company for allegedly defrauding customers, and she's fighting those darn robocalls to cellphones. Also, she's battling a sauna company that allegedly left some Illinois families absolutely sauna-less.

Yet every day, our crooked Illinois political tree brings forth more rotten fruit. A Republican governor in prison. A Democratic governor on the way, and on all levels of government you can find influence peddlers, schemers, manipulators.

I figure that no one has told Lisa this, but some of these creatures may even draw state political maps, and use their awesome powers to control the legislature, raising and lowering taxes, and installing toadies in key offices. These same creatures might even run side legal businesses reducing real estate taxes for the wealthy and well-connected.

That's why we must persuade Lisa Madigan to stop worrying about those terrifying robocalls and the scary sauna guys and start looking at the political class. They could teach her so many things.

So I'm inviting her to a special party on Dec. 28 at 9 a.m. in Room 4017 of the DuPage County courthouse.

That's where Carmen W. Iacullo, 58, a top boss in the Illinois Department of Transportation, is scheduled to appear on drunken driving charges. He was arrested shortly after midnight on Nov. 20 in Wood Dale. In the past, he's represented IDOT at events promoting driver safety.

Earlier, a few miles away in nearby Addison, the Italian American Executives of Transportation had held an annual dinner dance. Theirs is a philanthropic group that provides scholarships and honors prominent and worthy members.

Iacullo himself was the group's Man of the Year in 2010. At this year's dinner, an Iacullo friend, former state Sen. James A. DeLeo, D-How You Doin?, received the "Special Recognition Award."

But the Man of the Year of 2011 was the legendary Liberato "Al" Naimoli, boss of the Cement Workers Local 76. And what a man.

Naimoli was recently a star in a Chicago Tribune investigative series of state and city pension abuses. Now his special talents — and those of others profiled in the series — have drawn the attention of a federal grand jury.

Naimoli receives a $158,000-a-year city laborer's pension, from a $15,000-a-year city job as a cement mixer, a job he hadn't worked in more than 25 years. Naimoli also makes $292,000 in union salary.

Iacullo didn't return our calls asking if he attended the event before that Wood Dale incident. IDOT spokesman Guy Tridgell said in an e-mail that "any IDOT employees who were there attended on their own time and were not representing the agency. IDOT did not buy tickets to attend the event or purchase any advertising this year or previous years."

If only Lisa could show up and visit Carmen, he might get emotional and thank her. As Man of the Year for 2010, he just might introduce her to Naimoli, this year's man. Naimoli might just tell her who helped the unions get those wacky pension rules through the state legislature in the first place.

And then she can offer both boys some apple slices and a tart smile.

Lisa might also pick up copies of a Crain's Chicago Business investigation last month that said her daddy cost Illinois taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by stopping five bills to restructure McCormick Place bonds from 2005 to 2010, a time of falling interest rates.

The investigation alleged that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan blocked the legislation as punishment after the McCormick Place CEO fired his ally, and that the delay also bought time for two developer clients of Madigan's law firm to push through a land swap and hotel deal.

But a Madigan spokesman told Crain's that Speaker Madigan held up the refinancing to prevent the Blagojevich administration from committing corruption on bond contracts.

It's just what Illinois needs: Lisa and Daddy, a father-and-daughter crime-fighting team like The Incredibles, shoulder to shoulder, stopping the abuse of power, outside the governor's office.


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12108 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12108 Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:07:18 GMT
Most critics of Barack Obama’s desultory performance the past three years trace it to his supposedly leftist ideology, lack of experience and even his personality quirks. But it would perhaps be more useful to look at the geography - of Chicago and the state of Illinois — that nurtured his career and shaped his approach to politics. Like with George W. Bush and Texas, this is a case where you can’t separate the man from the place.

The Chicago imprint on Obama is unmistakable. His closest advisors are almost all products of the Windy City’s machine politic: Consigliere Valerie Jarrett; his first chief of staff, now Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emanuel; and his current chief of staff, longtime Chicago hackster William Daley, scion of the Windy City’s longtime ruling family.

All these figures arose from a Chicago where corruption is so commonplace that it elicits winks, nods and even a kind of admiration. Since 1973, for example, 27 Chicago Aldermen have been convicted by U.S. Attorney of the Northern District of Illinois.

That culture of corruption affects the rest of the state as well. Both Gov. George Ryan (who served from 1999 to 2003 and and his successor Ron Blagojevich have been convicted a major crimes. So have four of the state’s last eight governors. Blagojevich’s felonies are part and parcel of a political climate that also includes the also newly convicted Antonin “Tony” Rezko, a real estate speculator and early key Obama backer, sentenced late last month to a ten-year prison sentence.

Crony capitalism constitutes the essential element of what the legendary columnist John Kass of the Chicago Tribune has labeled both the “Chicago way” and the “Illinois Combine”, not primarily an ideology-driven movement. The political system, he notes, “knows no party, only appetites.”

Just look at the special favors granted to vested interests while the state has imposed a 65% boost in income taxes for middle class citizens. Companies like Boeing and United, which have head offices in Chicago, get tax breaks and incentives, while everyone else pays the full fare. This game is still afoot. Even as the state deficit persists, other big players such as the CME group, which operates the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Chicago Board of Options and Sears are threatening to leave unless their taxes are also lowered.

Thus it’s not surprising then that cronyism has become a hallmark of the Obama administration. Wall Street grandees, a key source of Obama campaign funders in 2008 and again now, have been treated to bailouts as well as monetary policies that have assured massive profits to the “too big to fail” crowed while devastating consumers and smaller banks.

The evolving scandal over “green jobs” — with huge loans handed out to faithful campaign contributors — epitomizes the special dealing that has become an art form in the system of Chicago and Illinois politics. Beneficiaries include longtime Obama backers such as Goldman Sachs , Morgan Stanley and Google. Another scandal is building up around the telecom company LightSquared. This company, financed largely by key Obama donors, appears to have gained a leg up for a huge Pentagon contract due to White House pressure.

If the Chicago system had proven an economic success, perhaps we could excuse Obama for bringing it to the rest of us. Most of us would put up with a bit of corruption and special dealing if the results were strong economic and employment growth.

But the bare demographic and economic facts for both Chicago and Illinois reveal a stunning legacy of failure. Over the past decade, Illinois suffered the third highest loss of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math-related) jobs in the nation, barely beating out Delaware and Michigan. The rest of the job picture is also dismal: Over the past ten years, Illinois suffered the third largest loss of jobs of any state, losing over six percent of its employment.

The state’s demographic picture also is dismal. In the last decade, Illinois lost population not only to sunbelt states such as Texas and Florida but actually managed to have negative migration even with places like California and New York, net losers to virtually everywhere else. In fact, Illinois had a positive net migration with only one major state, Michigan.

Chicago and its Daley dictatorship has been much celebrated in the media – particularly after Obama’s election in everything from the liberal New Yorker to Fast Company, which named Chicago “city of the year” in 2008. The following year, the Windy City was deemed the best city for men by Askmen.com, for offering what it claimed was “the perfect balance between cosmopolitan and comfortable, combining all of the culture, entertainment and sophistication of an internationally renowned destination with an affordable lifestyle and down-to-earth work hard/play hard character.”

Well, you can make that case, unless you happen to be searching for a job. Over the past decade, “the Chicago way” has proven more adept at getting good coverage than creating employment for its residents. In Forbes’ last cities rankings greater Chicago ranked 41st out of the 51 largest metropolitan areas. Between 2001 and 2011 it actually lost jobs. Since 2007 the region has lost more jobs than Detroit, and more than twice as many as New York. It has lost about as many jobs – 250,000 – as up and comer Houston has gained. In Forbes recent survey of high-tech performance, the Chicago region stood at a dismal 47th among the nation’s 51 largest metropolitan areas.

Overall, Chicago Loop Alliance reports that private sector employment in the Loop, the core of the Chicago downtown area, fell from 338,000 to 275,000 between 2000 and 2010. Chicago’s core has fallen further behind, in capturing high end employment than its traditional rival, New York.

This weak hand is also evident in the region’s strongly negative migration. According to the last Census, Chicago lost more than 200,000 people during the last decade. People are leaving the Chicago area not only for Sun Belt havens but to rising Midwest competitors like Indianapolis and Minneapolis, which offer better business climates, lower housing prices and cleaner governments, says local urban analyst Aaron Renn,. Even perennial losers like Los Angeles and New York are net gainers with Chicago.

Given this economic and demographic track record, it’s no big surprise that the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois face enormous fiscal pressures. The city is facing a deficit of about $650 million and the state’s unfunded future liabilities are upwards of $160 billion. The new taxes are on tap for state residents, according to Illinois Public Policy Institute, will cost the average Illinoisan a whole week’s earnings.

One might hope this disastrous record might make President Obama consider taking a different path to governing our country. Yet sadly it appears that acknowledgement of failure is not part of the “Chicago way” — a denial that may cost us dearly in the years ahead.


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12105 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12105 Fri, 09 Dec 2011 12:44:43 GMT
Moving forward, Republicans in Illinois provide the only hope for reform and a return to fiscal sanity.


-- Pat Brady, Chairman, Illinois Republican Party


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12103 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12103 Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:13:17 GMT
“Most of the employees are very long-term and a lot of them are either in shock or denial,” said Steven Kramer, vice president of the United Steelworkers union Local 9777. He said the union represents about 250 people at the plant, which has operated since 1961.

Kramer and employees estimated the shutdown will eliminate 800 jobs at the factory and at adjacent offices that used to be Alberto Culver’s headquarters. However, Unilever spokeswoman Anita Larsen said there are 600 jobs at the location. She said the entire office staff will be cut or transferred.

One worker said Unilever is giving up on Melrose Park because it has a largely older work force. She said that despite the plant’s age, it consistently surpassed benchmarks for productivity.

“They told us they didn’t want us even if we worked for free,” said the worker, who asked not to be named.

Employees said they’ve been told the plant, at 2525 Armitage Ave., will be wound down through next year and shuttered sometime in 2013. Larsen had no information on the timetable.

“This decision was taken as a result of a review of the company’s manufacturing network in order to achieve cost efficiencies,” she said.

Many people thought the site would be on the corporate hit list once Unilever acquired Alberto Culver Co. last year for $3.7 billion. It had been the linchpin of Alberto Culver’s manufacturing network, turning out Alberto VO5 and TRESemme shampoos, but Unilever told workers a few months ago the location was under review. The plant also makes Nexxus shampoos and conditioners, as well as St. Ives lotions and body wash.

In 1996, Unilever bought Chicago-based cosmetics company Helene Curtis. It later began a consolidation that cost hundreds of jobs and erased Helene Curtis’ employment presence from the Chicago area.

“They are a conglomerate. They have their own ideas. It’s not a good thing,” said Mike Sicuro Jr., economic development director for Melrose Park. He said that along with the ripple impact of the closing, the village will be hurt by the loss of one of its biggest water customers.

Sicuro and union officials said local legislators and the governor’s office have been alerted to the closure, but that there has been no offer of incentives to get the company to stay.

A spokeswoman for the state’s economic development agency had no immediate comment.

A union steward, Kevin E. Perry, said he’s worked at the plant for 28 years and that many others have a similar tenure.

“There are husbands and wives there and people who have been working there all their lives,” he said.

Unilever, Perry said, has shown some sympathy and been flexible in negotiating benefits for those to be laid off.

Kramer said the union has negotiated a severance of up to 28 weeks for its members, plus six months of continued health insurance and assistance with finding another job. He also said those who retire will get a $5,000 bonus.

He said most of his members there earn about $18 per hour.

Unilever’s Larsen said, “Our union and non-union colleagues will be eligible for severance, outplacement services and other support to assist in transitioning to new opportunities. We are committed to ensuring a smooth transition for affected colleagues.”


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12096 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12096 Fri, 02 Dec 2011 08:18:34 GMT
You can also start using Yahoo! powered GoodSearch as your search engine and they'll donate about a penny to electing Republicans in Illinois every time you do a search! You can also enroll in the GoodDining program. Eat at over 10,000 participating restaurants nationwide and you can earn up to 6% of every dollar spent on the meal as a donation for the Illinois Republican Party


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12089 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12089 Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:47:11 GMT
Illinois Republican Chairman Pat Brady tells WLS Radio that Illinois voters should be outraged about a recent Crain's Chicago Business article that reveals House Speaker Michael Madigan cost taxpayers nearly half a billion dollars when he blocked repeated efforts to refinance McCormick Place debt.

WLS Radio’s John Dempsey spoke with Brady who says this is the kind of thing Madigan’s daughter, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, should be investigating.

"She's an absentee Attorney General,” according to Brady, “When she ran, she promised that her position, you know with her father - relationship with her father, wasn't going to interfere with her job. We, in effect, don't have an Attorney General when it comes to these issues"

The Crain's story does not accuse Michael Madigan of wrongdoing but it does say one of his law clients benefited from Madigan delaying the refinancing.

Brady says he is not accusing Madigan of a crime but he says the story does warrant an investigation, "I think if there is a crime, I think it needs to be looked into. It's more his financial interests later on in the deal. That is where the crime might lie if there is one but the point is, it's never investigated. We have an Attorney General who never looks into this. That's her job. She is the chief law enforcement officer in the State of Illinois. That's her job to look into these things”

WLS Radio has contacted Lisa Madigan’s office for a comment but we have not received a response.


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12076 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12076 Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:35:28 GMT
The Crain's report found that Democratic political infighting - and possibly insider profiting - by Mike Madigan cost taxpayers nearly a half billion dollars. According to the report, between 2005 and 2010, Mike Madigan blocked five bills to restructure McCormick Place bonds. This was during a time of falling interest rates. Crain's says Mike Madigan may have done so because McCormick Place CEO Juan Ochoa fired an ally of Mike Madigan who worked at the convention center. The report suggests that Mike Madigan may have also been buying time for two clients of his law firm, who were working on a land swap and hotel deal with McCormick Place.

"These are very serious allegations about Speaker Madigan that require an investigation by Attorney General Madigan," said Brady. "Our state is broke and half a billion dollars went down the drain thanks to infighting and possibly insider profiting."

“Lisa Madigan has repeatedly assured voters in every political campaign that being the daughter of the Illinois House Speaker and State Democratic Party Chairman would not stop her from doing her job,” said Brady. “Now is the time for Lisa Madigan to do her job.”

"I know this may make Thanksgiving at the Madigan house a bit uncomfortable next week, but the Attorney General's oath of office as chief law enforcement officer trumps having a rough family dinner," said Brady.


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12075 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12075 Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:39:08 GMT
Americans know tough times are ahead, and they want leaders that will level with them in order to do the hard work to “master the challenges of a new century,” Sen. Mark Kirk told a full auditorium Sunday night at Elmhurst College.

Kirk was the guest speaker in the college’s series, The Democracy Forum.

In broad strokes, Kirk outlined an economic recovery plan he said would “save the economic future of the country.” Kirk, a Highland Park Republican, said the plan includes closing lobbying loopholes in the federal tax code that would allow the government to lower income tax levels for the top tiers from 39 percent to 29 percent. Additionally, the plan calls for ending agricultural subsidies and reforming Social Security and Medicare.

Kirk said the plan has the support of about 45 senators from both sides of the political aisle, including Illinois’ senior Sen. Dick Durbin. Additionally the plan calls for the D.C. Super Committee, comprised of members of the Senate and House, to “go big” by seeking $4 trillion in debt reduction, rather than its mandate of $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

The Super Committee has until Nov. 23 to come up with its recommendations or face automatic cuts in military and entitlement spending. Kirk said he was fairly confident the committee would meet its deadlines for a plan to reduce the nations’ $15 trillion deficit, so it can take advantage of a special dispensation that would allow the Senate to pass recommendations with only 51 votes.

Kirk warned that if federal lawmakers don’t get control of the national “spending problem,” the nation could face financial unrest of the likes currently seen in Greece and other European countries.

During his 30 minute address, Kirk hinted at the need to end military aide to Pakistan in light of accusations of that country’s intelligence organization’s involvement with terrorism. He also pointed out the threat of Iran and highlighted the political corruption in Illinois.

Kirk took the time to respond to questions from the audience, which ranged from immigration reform to taxes to jobs.

Kirk said improving the national infrastructure, which he said could be paid for through public and private partnerships like the type used by Abraham Lincoln to fund the transcontinental railroad, could put about $100 billion into the economy.

“We could give new life to Lincoln's economic legacy by building roads, airports and railroads using public-private partnerships," Kirk said.

Kirk also touted the need for a 401(kids) program, which would allow parents to set up a tax-deferred account to begin saving for their children’s future. He said parents could use it as a teaching tool to “teach savings and investments to young Americans.” Such a savings plan would have resources under the control of average Americans and not the government, he said.

Rachel Nelson, a student at Elmhurst College, asked Kirk about supporting the DREAM Act, which would help those brought to this country illegally as children by providing a path to citizenship if they go to college or join the military.

Kirk, who has not supported the DREAM Act, said the southern U.S. border needs to be secured to protect national security interests before any real discussion of illegal immigration can take place.

Former Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives Lee Daniels, also an Elmhurst College staff member, called Illinois’ junior senator one of the top leaders in the United States “representing all that is good and just in our complex society.”

“We need, more than ever, a leader that will guide us through these challenging and tumultuous times. Sen. Kirk is just such a man,” Daniels said.


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12060 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=12060 Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:35:03 GMT
Metamora Fields & Golf Club 801 West Progress Street Metamora 309-367-4000 Cocktails 5:30 Diner 7:00.



]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/eventdetail.aspx?eventid=6721 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/eventdetail.aspx?eventid=6721 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:39:07 GMT



]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/eventdetail.aspx?eventid=6660 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/eventdetail.aspx?eventid=6660 Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:49:35 GMT
5-9 PM

Oak Brook Hills Marriott
3500 Midwest Road
Oak Brook, Illinois

For more information, go to the DuPage County GOP website (see link below)




]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/eventdetail.aspx?eventid=6519 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/eventdetail.aspx?eventid=6519 Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:53:16 GMT
Cliffbreakers in Rockford, Illinois

Social hour begins at 6 PM, with dinner and program beginning at 7 PM. Speakers include Congressman Don Manzullo (16th District) and Congressman Bobby Schilling (17th District). Tickets are $55 per person for chicken and filet entrees ($5 discount if payment received w/ reservation by 2/1/12). For tickets or more information, contact joe@joeterrell.com, or go to our website linked below to order tickets directly.


]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/eventdetail.aspx?eventid=6612 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/eventdetail.aspx?eventid=6612 Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:55:12 GMT



]]> http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/eventdetail.aspx?eventid=6634 http://www.weareillinois.org/connect/eventdetail.aspx?eventid=6634 Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:48:20 GMT