Spending

I just received the following email from Lori DeYoung (Dem candidate for Ill. House 104th):

Please join me and my committee as we support Ryce Tuggle's efforts to save Kickapoo. Ryce has started the KICK campaign (Kids Interested in Conserving Kickapoo) and has scheduled a rally/picket from 9 to noon on Saturday 9/6/08 at Kickapoo.   There is also a sign up tent to get petitions at Lincoln Square this Saturday at 7 a.m. 

Listen to Ryce and I on WITY starting tomorrow - we all can make a difference to save this wonderful park. Many of us have had the privilege of camping, fishing, hiking, listening to music and having picnics/reunions at Kickapoo - don't we owe it to Ryce, her friends, and all children to have this place to enjoy in the years to come?

Please let me know if you can join us - 

thanks - lori

Yesteday's News-Gazette (forgive me, I'm still catching up...):

The city is prepared to buy several properties at the southeast corner of Neil Street and Bradley Avenue from the Urban League of Champaign County, with eventual plans to redevelop the property.

The city council will consider Tuesday authorizing the purchase of six properties for $250,000....

The properties include the former Community Day Care center, formerly operated by the Urban League, which is experiencing financial difficulties and needs to sell the properties.....

The city isn't sure what it wants to do with the properties, but will likely seek requests for proposals at some point "to see what developers have in mind," said Greg Skaggs, community development specialist with the city.

Before the city seeks proposals, it will conduct a study this fall of Neil Street between Interstate 74 and downtown, said Rob Kowalski, assistant planning director for the city.

"The zoning of that property is residential," Kowalski said.

"Although it's on a big arterial street, it's located in a residential area."

Multifamily zoning that would allow smaller apartments is a potential future use, he said.

"I don't think we're giving serious consideration to zoning it commercial, but it's still early and we have to study it," Kowalski said.

Interesting.

UPDATE:  The purchase was approved.  Rather than post another thread with today's NG article, I thought I'd just do an update.

City council members aren't sure what type of development will eventually arise on properties along Neil Street and Bradley Avenue that they agreed to purchase Tuesday night.

But they said they believe the city has a better chance of ensuring a quality development by temporarily owning the six properties at the southeast corner of Neil and Bradley.

"We want something attractive for the corridor," said council member Marci Dodds. "We don't want a bunch of junk."

Council members voted 6-2 Tuesday to authorize city officials to purchase the properties for $250,000 from the Urban League of Champaign County. Mayor Jerry Schweighart and council member Ken Pirok were opposed.

This is one more example of why I argued that it was irresponsble for Sen. Frerichs and Rep. Jakobsson to once again follow their leaders by passing an unbalanced budget and defering critical spending decisions to Gov. Blagojevich:

The governor was given an unbalanced budget, Quinn said, and "he did the responsible thing."

"These aren't decisions we take lightly," she said. "We didn't want to make them, but given a $2 billion deficit we have little choice."

Quinn said the governor met with each agency and developed a management plan as part of making up the deficit.

Overall, four state agencies will cut their work forces this fall because of the $1.4 billion Blagojevich took out of a state budget he said wasn't balanced.

The cuts include 179 positions at the Department of Children and Family Services and 73 at the Department of Human Services. Another 127 DCFS workers will keep their jobs but be moved to positions or areas where there are vacancies.

As for the parks and historic sites, the decision to close them is one that will not change this year, Quinn said.

Several historic sites, including Lincoln Log Cabin near Charleston and Bryant Cottage in Bement, are scheduled for closure Oct. 1.

Kickapoo State Park near Oakwood, Moraine View State Park near LeRoy and Weldon Springs State Park near Clinton are among the parks scheduled for closure Nov. 1, according to information from the governor's office.

I notice that the article had no quotes from either Democratic legislator who had originally voted for this budget.  I hope someone - if not the media, then their constituents - will ask them why they wanted the Governor to make these sorts decisions, and why doing so was good for their districts.

Today's News-Gazette:

Bruce Suardini, chief executive officer of Prairie Center Health Systems Inc., said at a news conference Wednesday that Thursday will be the last day its detox unit in downtown Champaign will accept new admissions.

That cut is just one of many the Urbana-based agency is making after learning last week that it would lose one-third of its state funding – about $914,200 – due to cuts in the Department of Human Services budget for mental health and substance abuse treatment.

...

State Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, D-Urbana, and State Sen. Mike Frerichs, D-Champaign, who were present for the news conference, called for a fundamental change in the way the state generates revenue, stopping short of endorsing tax increases. Both said they are hopeful that some of the money cut can be restored in the fall veto session.

Emphasis added.

Interesting article in yesterday's News-Gazette:

For months, Champaign County Board members have mentioned asking voters to increase their taxes through a November referendum as a possible fix to nursing home expenses weighing on its budget.

With the recent creation of an advisory board and the subsequent hiring of a St. Louis consulting firm, the talk has died down as a deadline for putting the measure on the ballot nears.

I still think they'll put it on the ballot:

Other quotes:

Betz expressed doubt that the home could generate enough funds not only to sustain itself but also to come up with millions to pay back the county general corporate fund.

"The management contract has no possibility of solving the outstanding loans issue and we should not kid ourselves into thinking that it does," he said.

Ugh.

And:

Urbana Democrat Ralph Langenheim, one of the strongest supporters of a tax increase, put the home's problems in a nationwide political context.

"The blunt truth is: Every Republican national administration since Reagan has mounted repeated efforts to repeal the reforms and programs enacted by Roosevelt, Kennedy and Johnson," he said. "These efforts have reduced Medicaid reimbursement to the home below cost; they have also reduced support for Medicare. This is the principal cause of our nursing home's gigantic deficit."

Of course! Those damn Republicans are the reason that CCNH is lost $1.5 million this year.  None of those Democrats at the state level, and certainly none at the County level, have absolutely anything to do with it.

One more:

Mahomet Republican John Jay said he supports the nursing home but not a tax increase.

"I do not believe a tax increase will solve the nursing home problems. It would only postpone the problems. We must remember the nursing home already receives an $800,000-per-year subsidy. We need to give the new nursing home board a chance to fix the problems. Just throwing money at it will not fix the problems," he said.

I hope, for the amount of money that we're spending on a County Nursing Home, that patients are being cared for who cannot receive care elsewhere.

Urbana School District 116 is somewhat mimicking Champaign Unit 4's long-term visioning committee, although with an explicit emphasis on facilities:

The goal of the committee is to come up with a long-term "road map" for how the school district's buildings should look and operate in the near and not-so-near future, board President Mark Netter said.

He said the committee will have freedom to examine other issues related to facilities, including looking at redistricting – balancing population sizes in elementary school. "We're not really giving them too tight a rein," he said.

...

To apply, send an e-mail to district spokesman Mark Schultz at mschultz@usd116.org with "who they are, why they're interested, a little bit about their background," Netter said.

Discuss.

Today's News-Gazette:

The county's lack of financial support has been a sore spot for years among other supporters of the economic development corporation – particularly the cities of Champaign and Urbana. The county board has two representatives on the development group's board of directors, even though the county chips in no money.

In contrast, Champaign gives about $115,000 a year, and Urbana gives about $33,000 a year. The group also gets annual commitments from Rantoul, Savoy, Mahomet, Tolono and Fisher.

Dimit said he felt a $5,000 contribution from the county would be reasonable, given financial pressures the county is facing with its nursing home.

Discuss.

Our State Rep., Naomi Jakobsson, had an interesting legislative session last week.

As you may recall, the State House was called into special session by Gov. Blagojevich to consider the capital plan, and a variety of revenue generating measures to pay for the capital plan and other state spending.

Rep. Jakobsson, though not a prolific legislator, is one of five House sponsors of the spending portion of the capital plan legislation.  However, last week, she voted against the funding mechanism for the capital plan - a gaming expansion bill.  Her explanation was two-fold.  First, she doesn't like gaming expansion, which is admirable enough.  But then she said:

"He promised the money for Lincoln Hall, and he's never come through," Jakobsson said. "He made a promise he didn't keep. I can't vote for $34 billion to give a man and not have him live up to his promises."

She's sponsoring the bill to give Blagojevich the authority to spend $34 billion yet doesn't trust him enough to allow him to spend $34 billion?

City of Champaign Township Supervisor Linda Abernathy, who is asking voters for a property tax increase this fall because she feels she doesn't have enough money to provide general assistance to township residents, somehow submitted a budget which inlcuded several thousand dollars in legal fees despite the City of Champaign providing free legal service for the Township.

Tension was higher than normal as the town of the city of Champaign Township debated their budget for Fiscal Year 2008-09 Tuesday night.

Though the township board eventually passed the budget, debate ensued about a $9,000 line item, of which a large portion was called "a supreme waste of money." An amendment was eventually added re-appropriating the $9,000 of the $688,668 budget. Originally, $3,000 of that money was allotted for professional fees such as membership to the Township Officials of Illinois, while the other $6,000 was appropriated for legal fees, which a number of the Board members had a problem with.

The legal fees were said to be used for outside legal counsel, despite the fact that the city of Champaign currently allows the township to use their attorneys.

"It sounds like there could be a fight on the horizon," said Board member Tom Bruno. "I don't want to suggest we get separate legal counsel if that's not the case. It seems like a supreme waste of money."

Township Supervisor Linda Abernathy said the counsel was not going to be used for any legal action brought up against the city of Champaign but rather to get advice about how to properly run the township and utilize its resources.

"This is not about a lawsuit," she said. "What (the board members) are doing is polarizing the issue."

Sheesh.

This, Sen. Mike Frerichs and Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, is why it's irresponsible to pass a budget that is so badly out of balance that you must rely on Gov. Blagojevich to cut things in order to balance it.  Does anyone really expect, when the Governor is considering where to cut, that the University or local legislative districts will be treated well? 

But at least our local legislators can sleep easy knowing they have done their masters' legislative leaders' bidding.

Normally, I wouldn't comment on such a pointless media pop, but something about yesterday's press conference by State legislators in front of Lincoln Hall demanding Speaker Mike Madigan pass a capital plan rubbed me the wrong way:

State Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Collinsville said the state was in danger of losing millions in federal matching funds if it did not move forward.

First, Rep. Hoffman is lying about losing federal matching funds if the state doesn't pass a capital plan.  From Rich Miller at Capitol Fax Blog:

Nobody has yet been able to prove to me that this “We’re gonna lose $9 billion” statement is a fact. Yet, it is contantly passed along by reporters as if it is true.

Second, Hoffman's dear friend and close political ally, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, promised the funding to renovate Lincoln Hall way back in 2003, when then Sen. Rick Winkel agreed to break with Republicans and vote for Blagojevich's bond refinancing proposal.  Blagojevich has yet to deliver on the promised funding from five years ago, so for Hoffman to stand up and demand that Madigan do something to fund Lincoln Hall is the height of chutzpah. 

If Hoffman really wants to help renovate Lincoln Hall, he should call on Blagojevich - again, they are very close friends personally and thisclose politically - to keep his promises, as the reason there has been no real capital plan is because nobody trusts the Governor to honor the funding promises which would be included in one.

UPDATE:  Here's the recent quote from Sen. Winkel, which I was having difficulty locating earlier:

In exchange for his vote in 2003 - and for which he got a lot of heat from other Senate Republicans - Winkel was supposed to get a commitment from Blagojevich to undertake the long-awaited renovation of Lincoln Hall on the University of Illinois campus.

It still hasn't happened.

"I found out who I was working with," Winkel said. "From my experience I wouldn't do it again."

First, he said he wouldn't trust Blagojevich. He isn't alone, of course, the General Assembly is full of members who believe they've been burned by the governor and his administration.

Second, Winkel said he didn't like the way political insiders, including GOP heavyweight Robert Kjellander, profited from the bond deal.

"I wouldn't do it again," Winkel said. "Besides, who's vote to give him a ton of money that he could use as a discretionary fund?"

ANOTHER UPDATE:  Here's another example of this tired trick:

Poor Joe White. The University of Illinois president apparently really believes Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the governor's claim - in a press release anyway - that if a big gambling expansion bill gets the Legislature's OK it means the UI's Lincoln Hall will finally, finally, finally get a long-promised $55 million makeover.

Where have we heard that promise from Blagojevich before?

Well, just four years ago.

Unfortunately, Joe White wasn't at the UI then. So maybe he can be forgiven for drinking the Blagojevich Kool-Aid and allowing himself to be used last week as a prop in the governor's latest stunt - sending deputies and assistants around the state to appear with local officials to promote a $25 billion capital improvements plan financed with proceeds from gambling expansion.

But even if the money for Lincoln Hall stays in the bill, and even if the bill passes, and even if the bill is signed by the governor, and even if the project is authorized that still doesn't mean the money would be released by the governor. This governor doesn't work that way. Deals are aborted. Promises are forgotten.

That's why a lot of state lawmakers don't trust Blagojevich, and why Joe White shouldn't either. The UI president is only setting himself up for a $55 million disappointment.

"I would have no confidence that any agreement would be honored or kept," said former state Sen. Rick Winkel - now a UI faculty member - who was burned by a Blagojevich "agreement" when he was in the Legislature. The pact was that if Winkel broke from his Republican caucus and voted for a $10 billion pension bond sale that Blagojevich wanted, Winkel would get construction money for Lincoln Hall and two other projects, the Post Genomic Institute and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.

How many times will Lincoln Hall be used as bait by Gov. Blagojevich as his allies to get gullible legislators to go along with his budget schemes?  Rep. Hoffman is the Governor's buddy, so his motives are transparent, but Rep. Black and Rep. Rose should know better than to participate in this.  Why are they standing with Blagojevich on this when they know he cannot be relied upon to fulfill commitments made more than five years ago?

And, at some point, it would be nice if the media attending one of these press conferences actually reported on the number of times Lincoln Hall funding has been promised and withdrawn by this Governor.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE (and bumped to the top):  Someone saw this post today, and wanted to send along this poll recently conducted in Rep. Hoffman's 112th District, a fairly Democratic district down by St. Louis.

Client: PRIVATE BY REQUEST
Date of Poll: June 11, 2008
Polling Area: 112th House District
Number of Participants: 3,772
Margin of Error: ± 1.57%

1.  Do you think it is appropriate for the Illinois Legislature to form a special impeachment
committee? - 65.46 percent

2.  Do you want your local legislators to support the formation of that special impeachment
committee? - 65.67 percent

3. Based on what you know about Gov. Blagojevich, do you think the legislature SHOULD attempt
to remove him from office? - 56.81 percent

Cross-tabs are at the link above.  Can someone please explain to me why the House Republicans are standing with Rod Blagojevich to call for this $34 billion capital plan, when nobody trusts him, even in Democratic district represented by his staunchest ally?

DISCLAIMER:  I built the campaign website for Hoffman's opponent several months ago, but I don't have any ongoing involvement with that campaign.  I didn't talk to them about this post, didn't get any information for it from them, and did not get the poll from Hoffman's opponent or his campaign.

Today's News-Gazette:

Urbana High School is facing restructuring after five years of groups within the school failing to meet testing benchmarks set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. As a result, the district needs to come up with a plan that is approved not only by the Urbana school board, but also by the Illinois State Board of Education.

Though the Urbana board approved a plan earlier in the spring, passing the state board is proving a hurdle. The Urbana-board-approved restructuring plan called for extra time for freshmen and sophomores to work one-on-one with teachers in subject areas in which the students need help, as well as more frequent classroom evaluations.

But the Urbana board did not approve a new $70,000 administrator position for evaluation and accountability, one recommendation from the original restructuring plan.

And on June 4, Carol Diedrichsen of the state board told the district that the restructuring plan "does not sufficiently describe a change of governance as required by law. ... The plan needs revision to include the structure for accountability, monitoring and support necessary to effect significant change in instruction."

Discuss.

The CCNH Advisory Board has approved a consulting contract with Management Performance Associates, sending it to the full County Board for approval this week.

The county nursing home's directors worked out their differences Monday to unanimously recommend a management contract for the facility.

Action on the $15,000-a-month contract would still have to be taken by the full Champaign County Board, which meets at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Brookens Center, 1776 E. Washington St., U.

Discuss.

Today's News-Gazette:

The budget put forward by Prussing includes $36,000, including salary and benefits, for a three-quarter time arts coordinator and $24,000 in rent subsidies for art galleries that have opened in downtown Urbana. But the $50,000 line item for public arts projects relies on the donations and arts events revenue.

Chynoweth wants to raise the public arts line item, which could pay for arts grants and commissioning public art, to $76,000 and to use tax increment money instead of hoped-for donations.

"One of our top council goals was to provide a dedicated revenue stream for the arts," Chynoweth said. "We created a task force and then a public arts commission. Now it comes to budget time and we say 'Whoops, there's no money for art!'"

Prussing said the budget reflects what the city can afford.

Discuss.

Ross Perot has a new (at least it's new to me) website with some educational information including a

slide show on federal revenues and spending and projections for the future.

Champaign's Council has unanimously passed a FY09 budget:

Capital improvement spending is set at $29 million. The budget includes $12 million in funding for a 600-space parking deck at the southeast corner of Hill and Randolph streets that is under construction; $950,000 to improve the intersection at Windsor Road and First Street; and $4.2 million to widen Curtis Road to four and five lanes next year for 2 miles between Wynstone Drive and Wesley Avenue.

The capital budget also sets aside $6.1 million for the Boneyard Creek detention project, also known as the Second Street reach. Work will begin this year on drainage improvements, including underground conveyance of storm water, in Scott Park.

Discuss.

I've obtained this memo sent to Champaign County Board members outlining the announced plans of each of the County's school districts if the proposed one percent sales tax increase for education facilities passes in November.

There's no real new information in this, but it is a very useful summary of plans.  You can read the whole thing yourself, but you'll note that every district which has existing debt is currently promising to use sales tax revenue to abate or eliminate that debt (and reduce property taxes as a consequence), although the amounts vary.

Key information to remember (taken from the memo):

Each of the Boards of Education of the 14 school districts in Champaign County has passed a resolution requesting that the Champaign County Board put the question of imposing a 1% sales tax for school facility purposes for submission to the voters of Champaign County at the November 4, 2008, election. If this resolution passes and the County Board implements the full 1% sales tax, the revenue can be used for the following purposes:

• Pay for projects as you go
• Leverage revenue for current needs (use revenue to pay for bonds)
• Retire existing debt issued for capital purposes (abate taxes)
• Any combination of the above

Discuss.

Random thoughts about the boondoggle state budget passed by the House and Senate Democrats over the weekend:

• The budget is so badly out of balance ($2 billion?!?) that someone - the Legislature expects it to be the Governor, and vice versa - will have to make severe cuts.  I hope it's the legislature, because I disagree with so many of the Governor's spending priorities.  And I still don't understand how the legislature can abdicate so much authority and discretion to a Governor whom none of them trust.
• You will see lots of stories claiming that the UI got such-and-such funding increase, and lots of mail and press releases from Rep. Naomi Jakobsson and Sen. Mike Frerichs claiming that they secured that increase.  But all they've really done is ask the Governor to make $2 billion in spending cuts, and they know that higher education will be one of his first targets.  So take all the bragging with a huge grain of salt until the UI actually receives the increased funds.
• Speaking of Sen. Frerichs, he voted against the gaming expansion and lottery sales which were to fund the $34 billion capital plan, but voted present on the spending portion of that plan.  That's a great example of consistent, principled, "tough and independent" leadership, eh?
• I'm glad that no Republicans voted for this budget, unlike last year, when so many were lured by the siren song of pork.

UPDATE:  Sen. Frerichs says that the deficit isn't that bad:

State Sen. Mike Frerichs (D - Champaign) said the governor has the power to balance the budget himself by vetoing the specific expenses he deems unnecessary and doubts the size of the deficit is as large as Blagojevich claimed Monday morning.

"According to our budget staff, it is not that large," Frerichs said.

How large is it?  And why did Sen. Frerichs vote for an unbalanced budget, trusting the Governor to make such important budgetary decisions?

These cartoons are compliments of an Ohio friend.  Pattsi Petrie

Special interests lobby our state officials and the result is unfunded mandates where the many taxpayers get stuck paying while the few benefit. This is particularly devastating at the municipal level.

A possible solution is to consider total compensation as wages, medical, and retirement benefits combined. We could start negotiating total compensation and budget accordingly. This would effectively insulate the taxpayer from special interests and technically would not adversely affect anyone (from the standpoint of total compensation).

Just an idea that doesn't involve getting creative about how we impose more taxes and fees.