Illinois Statehouse News

IL ranks high in corruption but has tough prosecutors

illinoisadmin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 02:15:19 +0000

By Stephanie Fryer and Benjamin Yount | Illinois Statehouse News

SPRINGFIELD — A new study lists Illinois as the third most corrupt area in the nation, andChicago as the most corrupt city, and experts in the state say Illinois has earned those titles.

The report, released at a Wednesday statehouse news conference, details a study from the University of Illinois in Chicago, or UIC, and University of Illinois' Institute of Government and Public Affairs in Champaign.

Only Louisiana and the District of Columbia have more corruption convictions per capita than Illinois. Chicago leads all cities in the United States in corruption convictions, where defendants are either elected officials or public money is involved, according to the report.

“For a long time, going back to at least the Al Capone era, Chicago and Illinois have been known for high levels of public corruption,” said UIC political science professor Dick Simpson. “But now we have the statistics that confirm their dishonorable and notorious reputations."

Only two other states have seen more of these convictions than Illinois in the past 36 years. California reported 2,345 convictions and New York had 2,522. Because the study makes the comparisons on a per-person basis and these two states have larger populations than Illinois, California and New York received lower rankings.

Illinois has around 12.8 million residents and averages 1.42 convictions per 10,000 residents.

Due to its significantly smaller estimated population of 4.5 million, Louisiana sees an average of two convictions per 10,000 people, making it the second most corrupt state.

However, the District of Columbia is the most corrupt; with well under a million residents, it has a per capita rate of 16.

Former federal prosecutor for Illinois' central district, Roger Heaton, said one reason Chicago and northern Illinois have seen so many corruption convictions is because prosecutors there take corruption cases seriously.

"There's a history of active investigations out of northern Illinois," said Heaton who has now moved on to private practice here. "And because prosecutions (of those investigations) were successful and resources were added to those forces, they grow and grow."

Heaton is quick to add that he "doesn't think Illinois is particularly corrupt, just that there have been a number of successful prosecutions."

Heaton served as the top federal prosecutor in central Illinois from 2005 to 2009.

Taylor Pensoneau spent nearly 12 years writing about Illinois government from the statehouse as a reporter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in St. Louis, Mo., and has spent the past decade or so writing about Illinois as an author.

Pensoneau agreed with Heaton that Illinois has been successful in prosecuting corrupt politicians because of its aggressive prosecutors rather than an abundance of corrupt politicians.

"I think it's fair to say that if other U.S. District Attorneys in other parts of the country were as aggressive as Peter Fitzgerald, more indictments would be happening all around the U.S.," said Pensoneau.

Fitzgerald leads the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago, and under his leadership, that office has secured convictions against former Illinois Govs. George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich as well as longtime statehouse power broker Bill Cellini.

Pensoneau acknowledged though that Illinois' recent history does not look good for the state.

"We have to face the fact that out of the last 10 governors, five were indicted," Pensoneau said. "And four of the last seven have been convicted."

Former Govs. Otto Kerner, George Ryan and Rod Blagojevich have all been convicted of corruption charges. Former Gov. Dan Walker was convicted of bank fraud charges after he left the governor's office.

Heaton said the real message of the story is not that Illinois is more corrupt than almost every other state, but that abusing the public trust will result in harsh consequences.

"The main value of studies like this, they draw people's attention to an ongoing problem," Heaton said. "And it reminds voters that this is important. If people misbehave and misuse public resources, then we all suffer."

Critics: New IL ag chief got post by voting for tax hikes

illinoisadmin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 01:50:37 +0000

By Benjamin Yount | Illinois Statehouse News

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is once again fighting off charges from critics that he is rewarding a supporter of last year's income tax increase with a cushy state government job.

Quinn on Wednesday named Bob Flider as director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture. Flider, who has started the job, will be paid $133,273 annually, though the Quinn administration is quick to point out that the director of agriculture’s salary is set by state statue.

Flider, a former Democratic state representative from the Decatur area, lost his re-election bid in November 2010. But he returned for a lame duck session in January 2011 — before the new General Assembly was sworn in — and voted for Quinn's 67 percent income tax increase and 47 percent corporate tax increase

But Flider insisted that his vote for the tax increases had nothing to do with his new post in the Quinn administration.

"The governor and I never once had a discussion about a tax increase, or anything associated with a tax increase and this position," said Flider.

However, state Rep. Adam Brown, R-Decatur, who defeated Flider in the 2010 election, said, "It looks like, from my vantage point, that he is accepting a position with state government for turning his back on his constituents."

Former Director of Agriculture Chuck Hartke said, "I don't think (Flider's appointment) is payback by any means. You can pick and choose any piece of legislation that Flider voted on over the years and say there is a connection (to the appointment)."

Hartke served as director of the Department of Agriculture from 2003 to 2008. Before that position, Hartke was a state legislator from 1985 to 2003y.

Quinn said in a statement announcing Flider's appointment that "Bob Flider was a tireless, effective leader for rural farming communities and global agri-business leaders."

Flider’s background includes being:

A state representative from 2003 to 2011, part of which he served on the House Agriculture and Conservation Committee;
The mayor of Mount Zion from 1995 to 2003;
A Mount Zion village trustee from 1991 to 1995.

However, Brown said Flider has never been a farmer or even worked in agriculture.

"It's a slap in the face to my background because I am a fifth-generation family farmer," Brown said. "Take a look at former Rep. Flider's background in agriculture. Think it leaves a little something to be desired."

Flider began his career as a newspaper reporter in Charleston, and most recently worked with the nonprofit Connected Illinois, which advocates for broadband Internet access in rural parts of the state.

Brown said Illinois' agricultural economy plays a huge role in the state's overall economy.

John Hawkins, a spokesman for the Illinois Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm advocate and lobbying group, said one in eight jobs in the state is somehow tied to the farm.

"Back in 2010, the most recent numbers we have, Illinois' total sales of crops and livestock topped $14.8 billion," Hawkins said.

Flider is the latest in a string of lawmakers who voted for the 2011 tax increase and later found new jobs in state government.

Quinn nominated former state Rep. Careen Gordon, D-Morris, to an $86,000-a-year job as a lawyer with the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, but she later took an $84,000-a-year job as a lawyer with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, after the state Senate would not approve her nomination.

The governor also found a spot in his administration for former state Rep. Mike Smith, D-Canton, who ended up as an appointed trustee, earning more than $93,000 a year with the state's Education Labor Relations Board.

But David Morrison, director of the good government watchdog group, Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said people should not read too much into the appointments.

"When the Republicans controlled the governor's office, they appointed former lawmakers as well," Morrison said. "There has always been a revolving door between the Legislature and the executive branch. It is tough to say what event starts that door moving around."

Flider replaces retired Illinois Agriculture Director Tom Jennings.

IL projected Medicaid costs raise questions

illinoisadmin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 01:49:24 +0000

By Andrew Thomason | Illinois Statehouse News

SPRINGFIELD — Medicaid spending Illinois is expected to increase — that is not in dispute.

The dispute is how this exploding expense is being calculated in the three-year budget projection and the implications of those amounts.

Lawmakers said the proposal shows Medicaid funding staying flat during the next three years, despite the reality that spending on the state-federal health insurance program is going to increase.

But Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget director pointed to the projections being just that, projections.

“It’s just a projection, not a budget. It doesn’t answer all the questions it raises,” said David Vaught, director of the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, during a special state Senate Appropriation Committee hearing Wednesday.

So, the projection for Medicaid “isn’t based on a real number,” said state Sen. Pam Althoff, R-McHenry.

“Why don’t we project what we actually think the dollars will be so everyone will see what position we’re going to be in?” state Sen. John Mulroe, D-Chicago, asked Vaught.

Vaught said that under the new Budgeting for Results legislation, the governor must base his budget on projected revenue. The Medicaid numbers were held flat, as were most others, to show just how much financial pressure the state is facing, and weren't meant to reflect reality, Vaught said.

“You only have certain available revenues, and you’re going to try and adjust your spending to live in those revenues,” Vaught said. “We’ve tried to force the problem into that Medicaid line to illustrate it … We’re not trying to dodge that problem.”

The three-year budget projection shows the state running an operating budget deficit of $818 million by fiscal year 2015. Vaught said that if the state hits the deficit without increasing Medicaid spending, the actual number the state will see when the cost of Medicaid increases could be nightmarish.

And Vaught added that the revenue projections used for the Medicaid projection were actually low.

“Our revenues are actually trending up in sales taxes and others,” Vaught said, adding that those figures would be available when Quinn makes his budget address Feb. 22.

But Stephen Schnorf, director of the Illinois Bureau of the Budget, said there is a huge difference between spending on Medicaid and the actual cost of the program.

“Those numbers are grossly different, and you need to understand that the ability to differ payments, to under-appropriate entitlement programs, frequently means there is no relation between cost and spending,” Schnorf said.

Spending on Medicaid this fiscal year will be about $8.6 billion and will grow by 41 percent during the next five years, ultimately hitting $12.1 billion, according to a report released earlier this month by the Civic Federation, a nonpartisan group that focuses on budgetary matters.

That same report shows that unpaid Medicaid bills sit at $2 billion and could hit $21 billion by 2017.

“Medicaid is starting to become as big of a crisis … as is the pension situation, which we’ve been talking about for many years,” Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, said. “The worse thing we could do is continue to dig and make the hole deeper.”

The number of people getting Medicaid benefits in Illinois has jumped from 1.4 million in 2000 to 2.7 million in 2011.

Msall said to fix the state’s Medicaid woes, the state needs to address Medicaid spending by implementing reforms, especially income and residency verification. Quinn recently announced he is moving ahead with those reforms without the federal government’s approval.

Quinn’s new Ag boss comes with baggage

illinoisadmin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 01:48:31 +0000

By Benjamin Yount Illinois Statehouse News

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois has a new director of Agriculture, but Bob Flider is still facing questions from his time as an Illinois lawmaker.

IL facing Medicaid funding crisis

illinoisadmin — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 01:47:52 +0000

By Andrew Thomason Illinois State House News

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois' Medicaid system is ballooning out of control so quickly it is about to take over public pensions as the single biggest budgetary woe for the state, experts say.

Video: Bob Flider to Dept of Ag

Benjmain Yount — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:02:31 +0000

Gov. Pat Quinn has tapped Bob Flider to head the Department of Agriculture. Flider speaks about the job and his vote for the 2011 tax increase.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

PAC challenges IL campaign contribution limits

illinoisadmin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 23:38:26 +0000

By Andrew Thomason | Illinois Statehouse News

SPRINGFIELD — Campaign contribution limits in Illinois are being tested in federal court only a year after being enacted.

Personal PAC, a political action committee that lobbies for pro-choice candidates, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago against the Illinois State Board of Elections that says the limits on giving to political action committees, or PACs, violate the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

“All we’re asking is that we play on a level playing field and not have to run campaigns with one arm tied behind our backs with the campaign finance limits,” said Terry Cosgrove, president of Personal PAC.

Personal PAC is asking for immediate and permanent injunctions on limits to campaign contributions to PACs. State law limits giving to PACs at $10,000 for individuals, $20,000 for corporations and unions, and $50,000 for other PACs and candidates’ political committees.

A status hearing on the case is set for Thursday.

Illinois once was regarded as the wild west of campaign finance law and until 2011, had no limits on campaign contributions. Illinois’ campaign finance law was passed before the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Citizens United case, upon which Personal PAC is basing its lawsuit. Illinois passed it’s campaign finance reform in 2009.

The U.S. Supreme Court determined that as long as a group was not coordinating with a candidate, it could spend an unlimited amount on campaigning for the candidate.

“Personal PAC desires to exercise this First Amendment right, as articulated and guaranteed by Citizens United … to raise and spend funds for independent expenditures without contribution or spending limits,” the lawsuit says.

Twelve states allow unlimited contributions to PACs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a bipartisan research group.

Kent Redfield literally wrote the book on campaign finance in Illinois. In addition to being a political science professor at University of Illinois at Springfield, Redfield authored, “Money Counts: How Dollars Dominate Illinois Politics and What We Can Do About It.”

Redfield called the lawsuit “the next unsettled question” in campaign finance law.

“Limiting me from giving only $10,000 to Personal PAC doesn’t limit my ability to make independent expenditures. I can make $1 million of independent expenditures. And so what we’re talking about is do I have an unlimited right to give to a group?” Redfield said.

Cosgrove said his organization missed out on about $100,000 in donations during 2011 because of the state’s contribution limits. The lawsuit also alleges that Personal PAC has a check donation worth $17,688.26 that will be void by May 23 if the state’s law stands.

The majority of PACs in Illinois give to candidates in the hope of gaining access to them once they are in the General Assembly, Redfield said. But for groups that lobby on controversial issues like abortion, their giving is more targeted at getting people on their side elected to office.

Redfield said that reasoning likely is why the lawsuit seeks an immediate injunction against the contribution limits and was filed before the March 20 primary.

Calls to the Illinois Attorney General’s office, which will represent the state in the case, were not returned.

IL campaign contribution limits challenged

illinoisadmin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 23:35:38 +0000

IL workers face challenge of keeping up with manufacturing

illinoisadmin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:20:30 +0000

By Anthony Brino | Illinois Statehouse News

SPRINGFIELD — David Del Castillo worked on an assembly line at the Knapheide Manufacturing Co. in Quincy for five years, until the economic downturn caused the company to lay off 185 employees in April 2009.

Some 400,000 Illinoisans lost their jobs in the Great Recession from February 2008 to January 2010 and 118,000 of those losses were in manufacturing, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

After earning an associate’s degree in advanced manufacturing, Del Castillo, who lives in Quincy, returned to Knapheide truck plant and has doubled his income and responsibilities.

“It’s neat, because it’s doing a lot of logistics, computer programming and chemistry, like testing anti-rust paint,” said Del Castillo, a former Marine and father of two teenage boys. He said that in his previous job at Knapheide, he put together parts of the truck bodies as they came by on an assembly line.

Del Castillo is the type of skilled worker manufacturing companies desperately want, but cannot find.

“Companies are literally starving for qualified workers,” said Tucker Kennedy, spokesman for the Illinois Manufacturing Extension Center, a nonprofit offering advice, training and technical expertise to Illinois manufacturers.

A survey of more than 1,000 employers nationwide found a wide gap in jobs and workers. Eighty percent of those surveyed said they cannot find enough qualified workers to fill open positions, according to a 2011 survey by the Manufacturing Institute, an affiliate of the National Association of Manufacturers, a manufacturing trade group.The survey polled executives from 1,123 companies, half of those from industrial products companies.

Driven by advanced technology and globalization, manufacturing in the United States has evolved and is “vastly different today than it was even 20 years ago,” said Kennedy said.

“It’s much more of a computer-aided, collaborative process that requires math and science as well as good communication,” he said.

Kennedy said the industry, as a result, has undergone a “mid-skills gap” — a shortage of U.S. workers who have mechanical or technical skills that require industry training or government certification, but not necessarily a bachelor’s degree.

At Knapheide, “we get lots of applicants, but finding ones with the right skills has been hard,” said Jim Rubottom, the company’s vice president of human resources. He said most applicants do not have welding or machine-cutting experience.

Knapheide primarily makes the metal truck bodies for companies like AT&T as well as contractors, plumbers and carpenters.

Most of the company’s 850 manufacturing employees are welders, Rubottom said. Others, like Del Castillo, program and operate the computerized machines that cut metal precisely.

Castillo and a few others also operate “E-coat” (or electrocoating) cleaning and painting machines, which require only one or two people to run and do the work that, 20 years ago, required 20 people, Rubottom said.

The rise of advanced manufacturing and the decline of the assembly line have gone hand in hand, Kennedy said, and the Great Recession largely finalized the trend.

Between 2000 and 2010 — as more than 100,000 Illinois manufacturing jobs were lost — productivity rose 70 percent, from $82.10 to $139.71 per worker per hour, according to the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

And Illinois manufacturers contribute the single largest share of the state’s economic output, 12.4 percent, according to the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association.

In December, Illinois added 2,200 manufacturing jobs and last year added 12,000, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security’s most recent data.

Before Del Castillo was laid off in 2009, he was studying for an associates degree social work at John Wood Community College in Quincy. Then someone at the local unemployment office suggested he consider training in advanced manufacturing.

Del Castillo switched and finished the degree in two years. Now he knows how to read blueprints, write computer code for machines that cut metal and adjust the chemical composition of the anti-rust paint sprayed on truck bodies.He recently was promoted at Knapheide, after applying for different jobs there and elsewhere. He said he turned down a position at the BASF chemical plant across the Mississippi River in Palmyra, Mo.

“That would have also paid well, but the drive was a little far,” he said.

Del Castillo declined to say exactly how much he earns. But between his income and what his wife earns at a local nursery, it’s enough to live comfortably and well over double what he was making on the assembly line, he said.

The average manufacturing job in Illinois pays $64,000 a year, said Mark Denzler, vice president of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association, or IMA, a trade group representing state manufacturers.

According to the Illinois Department of Employment Security’s Help Wanted Online database, 836 manufacturing jobs were open statewide in December, out of more than 100,000.

However, Jim Nelson, vice president of external affairs for IMA, who also works on education issues, said the database offers an approximate snapshot of job listings in any sector.

Manufacturing jobs are in demand, and likely will be for some time, Denzler said, because 300,000 baby boomers who work in manufacturing are expected to retire in the next decade — nearly half of the state’s 575,000 current manufacturing workforce.

IMA is working with community colleges statewide to train people in advanced industrial trades like welding and computer-assisted metal cutting, Denzler said.

Encouraging young people to pursue industrial trades and in-demand jobs like health care is part of Gov. Pat Quinn’s recently unveiled Illinois Pathways Initiative, a partnership between the public schools and businesses to improve middle and high school students’ science and math skills.

This initiative is part of Quinn’s larger goal to have 60 percent of Illinois adults with either a college degree or a career certificate by 2025.

“We have a mission in Illinois … to better support students and prepare them to get a good job in the 21st century economy,” Quinn said in a news release.

During the past decade or so, the Illinois government hasn’t really encouraged young people to consider industrial trades, said state Rep. Jill Tracy, R-Quincy.

“I think we’ve missed that niche, but community colleges have picked up what we missed,” said Tracy said.

Manufacturing used to be stigmatized as “dark, dirty and dangerous,” and parents and local school boards mostly focused on getting students into college, Nelson said.

“But that’s starting to come around. Local school boards are starting to partner with manufacturers and offer students another option,” Nelson said.

Quincy, in Adams County, has been at the forefront of manufacturing’s resurgence in Illinois.

Nationally, the unemployment rate stands at 8.3 percent; in Illinois, 9.8 percent; and in Adams County, 6.5 percent, the third lowest in the state.

A Mississippi River city ideal for exports, and the largest city for hundreds of miles, Quincy has been a manufacturing and commercial hub. When manufacturing picked up after the recession, John Wood Community College created new programs to train students with the skills the area’s 100-plus manufacturers are looking for.

Del Castillo said he finds his job both rewarding and challenging, adding that he has nothing but praise for college’s manufacturing program.

“I don’t know that I’d want an office job. I like working with my hands but using math and computers,” he said.

Video. Gov. Quinn Q&A

Benjmain Yount — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:01:38 +0000

Gov. Pat Quinn speaks with reporters in Springfield, and talks about an assault weapons ban.

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