This blog is focused on the politics and social news of the 58th District of Illinois (Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Highwood, Highland Park, Deerfield, Northbrook, Riverwoods, Bannockburn and Glencoe) and serves as a discussion group for concerned residents of the District and the State of Illinois who want to change the direction of our broken state government and improve the lives of all Illinoisans.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Northbrook Town Hall Meeting Announcement

There will be a townhall meeting in Northbrook at the Northbrook Public Library on Monday May 19th at 7pm. Republican Cook County Board Member Tony Peraica and others (including 58th District State Representative candidate Tim Stratton) will talk to residents about the exorbitant cost of government in Cook County Call June to RSVP at 847-441-5177. I encourage all to attend.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Hope Fades on Capital Bill for Illinois

Hope is fading fast on the Democrats chances for putting together a capital spending bill to address our state's crumbling infrastructure. It doesn't look like the politicians can agree on anything given the vicious personal attacks and general animosity towards one another (and we're talking about the Democrat lawmakers here). I found this good artice in the Decatur Herald today. The voters of Illinois have a chance to send a message this November by electing new State Representatives and Senators to represent them in Springfield.


The following news article is reprinted from the Decatur Herald-Review at:
http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2008/04/28/news/state/1032084.txt


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Hopes fade for meeting budget deadline

By MIKE RIOPELL - H&R Springfield Bureau Writer
SPRINGFIELD - Lawmakers plan to return to Springfield on Tuesday for what's scheduled to be their final month of consistent work before election season.

At the beginning of the year, Republicans and Democrats alike talked highly of spending $25 billion to fix roads, bridges and schools, as well as put thousands to work.

But as April comes to an end and lawmakers are scheduled to have a state budget done by the end of May, some have seen that optimism diminish.

"I don't feel as good now as when I first came in," state Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, said of the prospects of such a plan.

State Rep. Patrick Verschoore, D-Milan, said he was optimistic in January about the chances to get construction money. But the past several months have brought more infighting among Democrats, who have the most power to shape such a plan.

"Well, here we are," he said.

The situation mirrors last year, when lawmakers and Gov. Rod Blagojevich missed their budget deadline mark by months, leaving the day-to-day operation of state services such as police, parks and prisons in question.

A construction plan is a separate matter from the state's yearly budget.

If they banded together, Democrats in the House and Senate would have enough votes to approve a yearly budget without any Republican support.

But after May 31, rules change, and spending plans need more votes, so Republicans would have a say.

State Rep. Bill Mitchell, R-Forsyth, said he'd prefer things were done on time. "Because you know it's not going to be pleasant," he said.

Forby said that while he doesn't like how the state's billions of dollars are being handled lately, last-minute decisions aren't uncommon around the Capitol.

"Nobody ever does anything until May," Forby said. "They always try to do it in the last two or three weeks."

But even before a new spending plan can be worked out for next year, some are focusing on whether the state has enough money to even finish this fiscal year, which closes at the end of June.

A gap in the budget means Blagojevich has vowed to cut off cash to some agriculture and other programs until lawmakers find him more funds.

Some lawmakers are particularly concerned about cuts to agricultural programs such as the University of Illinois Extension and 4-H this year, making it tough for Extension employees to plan.

"So, some would say, why worry about next year?" said Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson, R-Greenville.

Mike Riopell can be reached at mike.riopell@lee.net or 789-0865.

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Friday, April 25, 2008

A Very Critical Story from a London Newspaper on the Democrat's Nomination Fight

Obama and Clinton: two cynical losers
Despite having all the trumps, the Democrats have squandered the chance of a lifetime
Gerard Baker--The Times


How do they do it? How do the Democrats manage to squander repeatedly and with such ease the chance of a lifetime? What inverse alchemy have they created that turns the gold bullion of electoral opportunity into the base metal of political oblivion?

Eight years of George Bush, an unpopular war and a recession have handed the Democrats their best chance, not merely of winning their first presidential election in 12 years, but of achieving a rare, once-in-a- generation transformational shift in American politics.

Four fifths of the American public think the country is on the wrong track. The President wallows in the highest disapproval ratings since polling began. The Republican Party has spent most of a decade bungling almost everything it touches, abandoning its principles and sinking into a mire of corruption, hypocrisy and incompetence.

And here we are, six months from a presidential election, and it is the Democrats once again who seem to be staring defeat in the face. It's like a soccer match in which one team keeps conceding a penalty in the final minutes only to watch as the opponents repeatedly boot the penalty kick high into the stands.

Hillary Clinton's solid victory in the Pennsylvania primary on Tuesday has condemned the party to many more weeks of strife and sinking public esteem. There's a popular view among Democrats and the media establishment that the reason for the party's current disarray is that it just happens to have two most extraordinary candidates: talented, attractive, and in their gender and race, excitingly new. But there's an alternative explanation, which I suspect the voters have grasped rather better than their necromancers in the media. Both are losers.

The longer the Democratic race goes on, the more obvious it appears that each is deeply, perhaps ineradicably flawed.

Until about a month ago Barack Obama had done a brilliant job of presenting himself as a transcendent figure, the mixed-race candidate with bipartisan appeal who promised to heal the historic and modern rifts in American life.

But the mask has slipped. Under pressure in a Democratic primary, Mr Obama has sounded just like any other tax-raising, government-loving Democratic politician. Worse, he has revealed himself to be a member of that special subset of the party's liberal elite - a well-educated man with a serious superiority complex.

His worst moment of the campaign was when he was caught telling liberal sophisticates about his anthropological observations on the campaign trail. In the misery of their daily lives, he said, the hicks out there in the sticks cling to religion and guns and the other irrational necessities of the unenlightened life. His wife had earlier told voters that they should be grateful that someone of his protean talents had deigned to come among them and be their president.

The events of the last month have also revealed another side of Mr Obama that threatens to undermine his whole message. He is a cynic. He tells the mavens of San Francisco one thing and the great unwashed of Pennsylvania another. In defending his long relationship with the Rev Jeremiah Wright, he shopped his own grandmother, comparing the reverend's views (God Damn America! The US deliberately spread Aids among the black population) to his grandmother's occasionally expressed fears about the potential of being the victim of crime at the hands of an African-American.

Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, has been busy shedding the final vestiges of shame and honesty in her desperate attempt to save her candidacy. She has abandoned any pretence of a message, and simply seized on every opening presented to her by her opponent.

Mr Obama's missteps with the working class of Pennsylvania have thus transformed Mrs Clinton from the bluestocking Wellesley graduate into the good old girl, hanging out there with the straw-chewing rednecks, embracing their values, their worldview and even their lifestyle.

Obliterate Iran! Here comes Osama bin Laden! I love duck hunting! I can do shots and beer at the same time! It's hard to know what's worse - expressing condescending views about the working class or pretending to be one of them. The Democratic campaign is simply disappearing in the enveloping vapidity of the candidates' making.

The economy's a mess; the US is bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead of seizing the opportunity to present a convincing vision of an alternative way forward the Democrats are fumbling. When they are not scrapping about each other's street cred they are falling back on the old verities of left-wing dogma: class warfare on taxes; irresponsible (and unredeemable) promises to pull out of Iraq in an instant; a protectionism that makes a mockery of their claims to want to restore America's standing in the world.

Amid this sorry spectacle of cynical opportunism and atavistic dogmatism, the Republicans have contrived somehow to select in John McCain the one candidate in their party who might actually have a shot at winning the election.

American presidential elections turn as much on the characters of the candidates as they do on the saliency of policies. Democrats, of course, think this is all rather crass. They think voters should confine themselves to the “issues”. But Americans understand their government a little better. They know the limits of presidential office and they understand the president's role as head of state is as much about leadership of the nation as it is about implementation of policy.

What they want is a man - or a woman - of character and record to inspire and lead them. That may be why the Democrats are in trouble.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Impeachment Talk Begins at State House

Well, the bombshell revelation the other day by a former Blagojevich administration official that the Governor was present at a meeting when a $25,000 campaign contribution check was handed over and talk of a quid pro quo for a political appointment was discussed has heated things up down in Springfield and for the first time we have our legislators publically talking about the topic of impeachment of the Governor. We need to clean up Springfield politics and it starts in November by electing new leadership (from both parties) to office.

Here is the article from the Rockford Register-Star:



Whispers of impeachment grow louder at Capitol

By Aaron Chambers
RRSTAR.COM
Posted Apr 23, 2008 @ 09:21 PM
Last update Apr 23, 2008 @ 10:15 PM

SPRINGFIELD — Gov. Rod Blagojevich, following his usual practice, slipped into a gathering through a little-used service entrance here today and prayed with lawmakers and citizens during his annual prayer breakfast.

It marked one of his rare appearances here, even more infrequent now, as the capital has become increasingly consumed by developments in a public corruption trial in Chicago involving his former fundraiser and adviser, Antoin “Tony” Rezko.

Some observers wonder whether Blagojevich will become even more isolated as the trial and broader federal investigation of his administration continues. On Tuesday, a witness claimed the governor was on hand when he traded a $25,000 campaign donation for a ranking state post.

There is a “growing public clamor” for an impeachment case against Blagojevich, said Rep. John Fritchey, a Chicago Democrat whose district includes Blagojevich’s home. Fritchey said lawmakers must approach impeachment with “great reluctance” but that they may consider the remedy now that Blagojevich was “alleged to have committed very troubling acts.”

For the governor’s part, he seemed to allude to his situation Wednesday toward the end of his remarks to the prayer breakfast when he quoted an old Hank Williams song.

“You never stood in that man’s shoes or saw things through his eyes, or watched with helpless hands while the heart inside you dies,” the governor said. “So help your brother along the way, no matter where he starts, because the same God that made you made him too, these men with broken hearts.”

Some observers say the escalating legal probe may do little to change matters at the Capitol.

“You’ve got a governor who is not trusted by the vast majority of legislators,” said Mike Lawrence, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University. “He has not been trusted for several years now. And the fact that he’s having legal problems will just reaffirm their distrust.”

Blagojevich and lawmakers have for months been at loggerheads over how to patch a deficit in the current budget, how to craft the next budget and how to structure a capital construction plan. The Rezko trial coupled with the related probe is just one factor driving gridlock.

Some observers called Tuesday’s development significant. Ali Ata, the former executive director of the Illinois Finance Authority, admitted in a court document that he lied to the FBI in December 2005 when he told an agent he did not owe his $127,000 job to his donations to Blagojevich or to the influence of Rezko.

Charles Wheeler, director of the public affairs reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield, said Ata’s statement “seems to implicate (Blagojevich) more directly” than previous allegations concerning the governor.

“For Blagojevich, this ratchets up the concern of what the federal government is doing, and it’s got to be a major distraction for him,” he said.

Blagojevich has not been charged criminally with wrongdoing.

Spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said today that Blagojevich is focused on crafting a capital construction program — the “primary goal of the next fiscal year,” she said.

“Those who suggest that resolutions can’t be reached because of an unrelated court case are fishing for excuses,” she said.

Chris Mooney, a UIS political studies professor, said the intensifying federal probe could increase pressure on Senate President Emil Jones Jr., D-Chicago, to break his alliance with Blagojevich.

Blagojevich and Jones have since last spring feuded with House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.

“In that way it might help things, get things moving, to get (Blagojevich) out of the picture,” Mooney said.

Jones spokeswoman Cindy Davidsmeyer dismissed that notion, saying the Jones/Blagojevich alliance is based not on politics but on mutual policy goals.

Staff writer Andrea Zimmermann, GateHouse News Service writer Meagan Sexton and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Transportation Funding in Jeopardy as a Result of Political Games

Once again, the importatnt transporation needs of Illinois are fodder for political gamesmanship between the Democratic controlled leislature and Governor's office. As this article points out if the state does not agree on a capital spending bill (which seems less likely with each passing day) then the taxpayers of Illinois stand to loose more than $10 billion dollars of Federal money we have already paid for! This underscores the importance of this fall's election and the consequences of not sending new leadership to Springfield to deal with these and other issues.

The article from the Chicago Tribune is below:


$5 billion a year needed to maintain Illinois roads and bridges, experts say
Bipartisan panel warns public officials that time is running out to shore up funding

By Richard Wronski
Tribune reporter
11:08 PM CDT, April 23, 2008
Illinois needs to invest at least $5 billion a year in additional funding just to maintain its roads, bridges, transit systems and airports, experts told a bipartisan panel grappling with the problem of the state's crumbling infrastructure Wednesday.

But it has been more than eight years since the General Assembly enacted the state's last public works package, and time is running out for legislators to act on a new measure this spring, according to the Transportation for Illinois Coalition.

The organization sounded the warning before about 250 public officials, transportation heads and business representatives at a DuPage County transportation summit.

The Naperville gathering was one of the largest in a six-week series of statewide "listening sessions" held by former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Glenn Poshard, president of Southern Illinois University, to bring attention to the issue.

Hastert, a Yorkville Republican, and Poshard, a Democrat from Carbondale, were appointed by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to pitch his $25 billion public works program. But many believe that proposal would not meet the state's needs.

"You can't do a capital bill on the cheap," said RTA Chairman Jim Reilly. "You will find out you haven't done anything."

The state must invest a greater local match to recover $10 billion in federal highway funds—tax money that Illinoisans already have paid, Hastert said.

"If you leave $10 billion on the table, it doesn't make much sense," he said.

The longtime congressman said after the session that he is confident that the political gridlock in Springfield that has stalled a public works plan can be broken. There is still time for legislative leaders to talk out their differences as the spring session winds down, he said.

Hastert said he was optimistic because he served in the state legislature with three of the four leaders, House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President Emil Jones and Senate GOP leader Frank Watson. And House GOP leader Tom Cross "was a student of mine" when Hastert was a Yorkville High School history teacher, he said.

"We can sit down with the legislative leaders and the governor, around the table, and try to define the scope [of the legislation] and try to find what the revenue sources are [to fund it] and have a good bipartisan effort," Hastert said.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

It Just Goes From Bad To Worse For This Guy

A bombshell revelation of the Governor's involvement in public corruption came out late the other day in the trial of an administration insider. Here is an article explaining the situation. What makes this ever more astonishing is the fact that this governor championed "ethics reform" during his first term in office. Remember the governor's re-election tag line about Judy Topinka..."what's she thinking"? Reading this account one has to ask the same question of the Governor and his people..."what were they thinking?".

Governor tied to job scheme
4/23/2008

Natasha Korecki, Chicago Sun-Times

A former top official in Gov. Blagojevich's administration said Tuesday the governor gave him a $127,000-a-year state job in exchange for pouring cash into Blagojevich's campaign fund, including tens of thousands of dollars out of his own pocket.

That bombshell from Ali Ata came as the onetime director of the Illinois Finance Authority pleaded guilty in a deal in which prosecutors plan to have him testify in the ongoing corruption trial of former Blagojevich fund-raiser Tony Rezko.

Ata placed the governor at a meeting where money was exchanged and a reward -- his future state job -- was promised. Ata said that, in 2002, he met with Blagojevich at Rezko's Chicago offices and gave the governor a $25,000 check for a campaign contribution. Rezko placed the check on a conference table, according to Ata's plea deal. Then, according to Ata, Blagojevich "expressed his pleasure and acknowledged that the defendant had been a good supporter and good friend." The governor, "in the defendant's presence, asked Rezko if he [Rezko] had talked to the defendant about positions in the administration, and Rezko responded that he had."

Later, at a July 2003 fund-raiser for the governor at Navy Pier, Ata -- who had contributed another $25,000 -- said Blagojevich spoke of having him join the administration and said, "It had better be a job where [Ata] could make some money."

Ata started working as director of the state agency in 2003 and was formally appointed to the job in 2004, the year Blagojevich created the authority.

Responding to Ata's allegations, a Blagojevich spokeswoman said: "We don't endorse or allow the decisions of state government to be based on campaign contributions."

Blagojevich hasn't been accused of any crime. His administration is the target of a federal investigation involving "pay to play" allegations that state positions and contracts were traded for campaign contributions.

Ata's plea deal refers to the governor only as "Public Official A" -- the same reference prosecutors have used. But sources -- and the judge in Rezko's corruption case -- previously identified Blagojevich as "Public Official A." And Ata made the same dollar-amount contributions on the same dates detailed in the plea deal to the governor's campaign, state records show.

Besides saying he had to give money to the governor's campaign to get his state job, Ata said he also had to keep Rezko happy to keep the job. To do so, he said he agreed to Rezko's repeated pleas for cash and ended up giving him a total of $125,000 in cash.

Ata, 56, of Lemont, was a co-defendant in a business-fraud case against Rezko -- involving Rezko's fast-food franchises -- that has yet to go to trial.

Rezko is on trial on unrelated charges that he used his influence in the Blagojevich administration to orchestrate a kickback scheme involving state business deals.

Ata pleaded guilty to lying to an FBI agent when he said he didn't get anything in return for making contributions to Blagojevich and admitted he lied about Rezko's influence.

He also pleaded guilty to failing to report $1.2 million in income related to a development at Addison and Kimball.

Ata, facing 12 to 18 months in prison, could get less time based on his cooperation. Prosecutors dropped a charge that Ata helped Rezko fraudulently secure $10 million in loans related to his Papa John's pizza restaurants in Chicago and Milwaukee.

Ata gave a total of $65,000 to Blagojevich's gubernatorial campaign fund. He also contributed $5,000 to Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama, who gave that money to charity after Ata's indictment last year.

Though Ata left his state post after about a year, following a critical audit, he soon got a three-year, $55,200-a-year consulting deal with the agency -- which he declined after the Chicago Sun-Times reported a foreclosure he didn't disclose. Ata said then: "For someone to imply that I paid $60,000 to get a job of $127,000 is erroneous and wrong."

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Loosing Trust in State's Democrats

This is a good editorial I ran across on the Capitol Fax Blog from the Galesburg, Illinois newspaper. The Democrats have let this state down and its time to rethink who we send to Springfield. To be clear, the old Republican party had its blemishes too but independent moderates realize that people and not parties solve problems. I want to work within the two party system to bring change to Illinois. Problems aside, it was the Republican party in Illinois that stood for fiscal discipline, paying bills on time and protecting our state pensions. Structural deficits were never this bad and job creation was a priority under Republican leadership--so was holding the line on the crazy tax and fee hikes. We need a return to the ficsal conservatism of the Republicans. Enjoy.

By DAVE CASS
Letter to the Editor
Posted Apr 08, 2008 @ 11:24 AM

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I usually don’t write a letter to the editor unless I encounter something which I consider frustrating or just absolutely stupid. I got a double-whammy in Friday’s edition of The Register-Mail.

First, State Rep. Mike Smith (Democrat of Canton) is proposing a constitutional amendment that would increase the state income tax rate for people earning more than $250,000 a year from the current 3 percent to 6 percent. Is that really a good idea?
The American Dream has always been to become successful through initiative and hard work. Why penalize those among us who have achieved this? Unless I beat the odds and win the lottery, I don’t ever expect to be one of those earning a quarter million a year, but I don’t harbor ill feelings toward those who do. These are the people who have either taken a risk in business or who have gone to school to learn a skill which is highly sought after by the rest of us. We couldn’t function without these people. Why should we tell them that we are going to take twice as much proportionally from them as from everybody else? What does it say to our young people when, by our actions, we tell them not to try to achieve success because a greater percentage of their incomes will be usurped in order to make the rest of us feel better?

OK, as if that wasn’t bad enough. I also see that the State Senate has voted to expand health care, an admirable idea. The problem comes with the mechanism for funding this noble purpose.

The Democratically-controlled Senate decided it would be a good idea to raid “many small piggy banks” in order to raise the necessary funds for this action. Unfortunately, these “many small piggy banks” are funds that were set aside for specific purposes. One of them is the Teachers Retirement Insurance Program. I have seen what Blagojevich has done to the Teachers’ Retirement System funding recently and I don’t relish the idea of him tapping into my health insurance to pay for his pet projects.

For many years, I have voted Democratic because I thought they were the party that looked out for us “little guys.” (The exception to this would be my voting for Don Moffitt, a man for whose work I have the utmost respect). I am beginning to realize that, when it comes to what’s happening here in Illinois, my allegiance to the Democratic Party has been misguided. Until they prove to me that they have the intelligence and fortitude to deal with the state’s financial crisis in a reasonable manner, they have seen the last of my support! — Dave Cass, Galesburg

Thursday, April 3, 2008

It just keeps getting better and better...

Can you believe this latest piece of legislation that has been introduced by the Democrats. It seems they aren't satisfied with the taxes they are already taking from the hard working people of the State of Illinois. This bill would double the income taxes on those families making more than $250,000 a year.

Here is the article from today's Daily Herald:

Double state taxes for the rich?
By John Patterson | Daily Herald Staff
Published: 4/3/2008 10:22 AM | Updated: 4/3/2008 6:19 PM
SPRINGFIELD -- A state lawmaker wants voters to decide if people making more than $250,000 a year should have their Illinois income tax doubled, with the billions of new dollars paying for education, roads and tax breaks for everyone else.

If successful in Springfield, the question would be put to voters in November. If voters endorse it, the current 3 percent state income tax rate would double to 6 percent for individuals and joint tax filers making more than a quarter-million dollars.

Colleagues have already dubbed downstate Democrat Rep. Mike Smith's plan the "Robin Hood referendum." State tax data shows 107,000 people in the state made more than $250,000. That's roughly 5 percent of all tax filers.

"Let's take from the rich and give to the poor," said state Rep. Joseph Lyons, a Chicago Democrat.

Supporters hope the other 95 percent -- who'd pay nothing more and could see upward of $300 in state tax breaks -- would swamp polling places to vote for this.

"I'm not sure who would campaign against this other than those 107,000," Smith said.

But some suburban lawmakers were quick to oppose the plan. Not surprisingly, the greatest concentration of top earners is in the Chicago and suburban region. Cook County had 45,146 tax filers reporting income over $250,000 in 2005.

The numbers in the other suburban counties were: DuPage County, 15,054; Lake County, 12,846; McHenry County, 5,449; Kane County, 4,558; and Will County, 2,693.

Sen. Kirk Dillard, a Hinsdale Republican, said the low, flat income tax is "one of the last good economic tools" in Illinois.

"We should not get sucked into class warfare," said Dillard, who estimated his own income would fall short of the $250,000 threshold.

Dillard was among the Republican lawmakers who, also on Thursday, unveiled their own economic plan that calls for rolling back state taxes on gasoline and businesses.

Illinois now has a flat, 3 percent income tax regardless of how much someone makes. The state constitution requires a flat rate regardless of income, so an amendment would be needed to create an upper-bracket tax.

Under this tax plan, the increase would generate nearly $3 billion annually to be split equally among education funding, state-sponsored construction and tax relief in the form of doubling the personal exemption for those making less than $250,000 annually.

The proposal comes as lawmakers are again considering plans that raise income taxes and expand sales taxes to come up with billions of new dollars for school funding. They're also considering new casinos and other gambling expansion to finance road, bridge and school construction.

But Smith said he believes those plans are hopelessly stalled, and putting the income tax before voters is a better option. A proposed constitutional amendment also would skip Gov. Rod Blagojevich's desk and go straight to voters.

Blagojevich has repeatedly vowed not to raise the state income or sales tax. He did, however, recently agree to a higher Chicago and suburban sales tax to bail out mass transit agencies.

Of the 40 states with an income tax, Illinois is one of seven charging all taxpayers a flat rate. Indiana similarly has a flat, 3.4 percent income tax rate.

Wisconsin has four tax brackets ranging from 4.6 percent to 6.75 percent, Iowa's tax rates cover nine brackets ranging from 0.36 percent to 8.98 percent, and Missouri's 10 income tax brackets range from a low of 1.5 percent to a high of 6 percent.

To make the November ballot, the proposed tax question would need House and Senate approval by May 4. Smith said he hopes for initial approval in the House as soon as next week.

General Assembly Back in Session "working" for you and I...

The General Assembly returned to Springfield April 1st and boy the joke is certainly on the voters.

One of the first items they took up was a plan to raid dedicated funds and sweep the money into the state's general fund (read--steal the money from pledged causes and use it to shore up run away spending and failure to cut budgets). The money would come from dedicated funds for things like open space, environmental protection, among other things.

This is a purely political act of a desparate group of people who need money to fuel their addiction to new programs and cover up past abusive spending. The people of Illinois have got to stand up to this nonsense and say enough is enough. It starts by sending new people to Springfield to clean up this mess.

Here is a recent article from the Springfield State Journal-Register explaining the raid proposal:

Democrats’ plan would raid funds
Senate panels OK bills that add spending; Madigan calls idea ‘delusional’

By DOUG FINKE
STAFF WRITER

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Illinois Senate Democrats on Wednesday put forward a plan to fill the state’s three-quarter-of-a-billion-dollar budget hole, but it calls for additional spending and raiding restricted funds.
House Speaker Michael Madigan’s office called the idea “delusional.”

Senate committees controlled by Democrats approved bills that expand health-care programs by $43 million for the budget year that ends June 30 and add back $53 million in House Democrat pet projects that Gov. Rod Blagojevich cut from the budget last fall.

To pay for it all, Blagojevich would be given authority to take $530 million out of hundreds of state accounts that are set aside to pay for certain programs and are not funded with general tax dollars — for example, regulatory funds set up to collect licensing fees from certain professions.

Money left over after the increased spending would be used to close the shortfall in the fiscal 2008 budget, estimated by Blagojevich’s office to be $750 million. The shortfall, caused by lagging tax receipts from the economic slowdown, has further delayed payments to state vendors and others reliant on government spending.

Some Democrats said they were trying to send an olive branch to Madigan, who was furious when his members’ pet projects were cut from the budget while those of Senate Democrats were left intact. Madigan believes

Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago, broke a promise to restore any such cuts made by Blagojevich.

“This is a carrot that may get the speaker back to the (bargaining) table,” said Sen. Donne Trotter of Chicago, the Senate Democrats’ top budget negotiator.

However, Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said the plan makes no sense, even if some of the money would go to House Democrats’ districts.

“We’ve been talking for weeks about a $700 million deficit, and now we are talking about new (spending)?” Brown said. “It’s a delusional act.”

Brown also said it makes no sense to again tap into restricted accounts, given the lawsuits that have been filed challenging the state’s authority to do that.

The special funds have about $3.2 billion in them, Trotter said. Since 2003, the legislature have taken $1.6 billion from the funds to balance state budgets.

Although the health-care expansions would cost $53 million through June 30, Republican lawmakers said it will add $300 million to next year’s budget.

“This is not chump change,” said Sen. Christine Radogno, R-Lemont. “We’re not addressing the problem … We just keep spending more and more and more.”

The bills approved in committee now go to the full Senate for a vote. They must also pass the House and be signed by Blagojevich before they would become law