Statehouse

When Illinois voters approved the call for a Constitutional Convention 35 years ago this month, the main selling point was the need to revamp the state’s century-old, horse-and-buggy charter to meet space-age needs.

Proponents of constitutional revision touted such benefits as a revenue article flexible enough to allow targeted tax breaks, expanded authority for cities to handle their own affairs and restrictions on state borrowing more attuned to contemp-orary financial practices.

Governors may have reason to remember the old adage on being careful about wishes.

The move to shift responsibility for social welfare programs from the federal government to the states has definitely picked up steam under President George W. Bush. 

Proponents of devolution, so called, promote it as a way to give the states flexibility to reinvent social policy, to tailor it to local needs. And that’s something state officials have devoutly wished for. 

What’s in a name? A tax by any other name hits just as hard.

Taxes provide dollars for everyday government expenses. Fees, at least in the traditional sense, provide funds for specific purposes. Then, in Illinois’ current spending plan, there’s the hybrid: fees that resemble taxes.

The other shoe appears poised to drop on Illinois’ cash-strapped local governments.

Already reeling from new waste water permit fees imposed by the state, local officials now also face steep costs to comply with a federal mandate for election reform.

Under the Help America Vote Act, enacted last year in the wake of the Florida vote counting debacle in 2000, election authorities must:

The running joke at this summer’s annual conference of state government reporters was that the recession is over. Economists with the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonprofit organization, say it ended in November 2001.

One pre-emptive strike begets another. At least that’s the sequence of events in Evanston, where the city council registered its opposition to one of the federal government’s chief tools in the war against terrorism.

The council passed a resolution in May calling on Congress to repeal the USA Patriot Act and “refrain from passing any further legislation that violates or unduly limits the civil rights and liberties guaranteed by the United States Constitution.”

Are we killing the goose that’s been laying golden eggs in the coffers of state and local governments for the last dozen years?

Since 1991, Illinois’ riverboat gaming industry has produced some $3.5 billion in tax revenues for the state and for the nine communities in which the floating casinos have docked.

But the ongoing bounty may be susceptible to a couple of worrisome trends documented in Illinois Gaming Board reports and in a new study from the Illinois Economic and Fiscal Commission. The ominous portents:

What is it about Illinois? The Land of Lincoln has a long- running, nationwide reputation for political corruption, and we aren’t in a position to complain. There is hard evidence — even Illinoisans can see it — to rank this state among the ethic-ally challenged. These days especially, when it wouldn’t come as any surprise if the slogan on Illinois’ license plates read, “What’s in it for me?”

“Be careful what you wish for,” advises an old adage, “because you just might get it.”

Gov. Rod Blagojevich might find himself reflecting on that sage advice in coming weeks, after the Illinois General Assembly sent the Democratic chief executive a $53 billion revenue-and-spending plan for the coming fiscal year that closely resembled what he proposed some eight weeks earlier.

To be sure, Blagojevich was the cheerful optimist as he took a victory lap around the state the day after the spring session ended.

Death penalty reforms. Cheaper prescription drugs. Gambling options. And an unprecedented budget crisis. Lawmakers face a long might-do list heading into what they surely hope will be the last month of this legislative session.

In the next weeks, they’ll scramble through some 2,000 bills aimed at solving a range of perceived problems, many of them old familiars. 

The bill to abolish the death penalty was not called for a vote on the House floor. Rep. Art Turner, the sponsor, says he simply couldn’t muster the votes necessary for passage.

By pulling the bill, Turner avoided forcing his colleagues to state for the record whether they support the ultimate punishment. But one thing is clear: Lawmakers are comfortable, if not enthusiastic, with keeping that statute on the books.

The story line is classic Looney Tunes: The character painting the floor works himself into a corner and appears trapped. He scratches his head, a light bulb comes on, and he quickly outlines a door on the wall. Turning the knob, the clever hero opens the door and escapes.

It’s tough being a governor these days. There’s no question about that.

Nationwide, states are facing their worst fiscal crises in more than 50 years. And some say Illinois is facing its worst ever. That’s a bit of political hyperbole, perhaps, but not far off the mark. Times are grim.

Going into his first state budget, Gov. Rod Blagojevich is staring down a $1.2 billion hole. His estimate. By the end of the budget year that begins this summer, he’ll have to fill another $3.6 billion hole. Again, his estimate.

Lawmakers resurrected a classic phrase to express their wonderment over Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s approach to dealing with the ailing state budget: Where’s the beef?

No, they’re not hoping for bigger hamburger patties, as burger lovers were in the Wendy’s commercials that made the saying famous. They want to know just how the Democrat intends to deal with a deficit he estimates at a combined $4.8 billion for this fiscal year and the one that begins July 1.

The NCAA men’s basketball Final Four showdown is just days away, and the NBA playoffs start in a couple of months.

A key element for successful hoopsters at any level, knowledgeable fans know, is the transition game — how well a team makes the shift from offense to defense and vice versa. Does it get back on defense fast enough to thwart an opponent’s fast-break hopes? Is it quick enough going the other way to score easy baskets?

Sally Jefferson arrived at Alton Penitentiary on September 11, 1835. A prison clerk’s brief notation in the Convict Register marked the occasion. “No. 23,” the clerk wrote, had been sentenced by the Peoria County Circuit Court to 12 months of confinement for arson, including two weeks in solitary. She was 24 years old. “Her left hand and arm had been considerably seared by a burn when young.”

The video poker machines found in bars around Illinois are perfectly legal. What’s not is the widespread practice of gambling on those games.

So when bar owners collect money their patrons lose while betting on the machines, that cash goes unreported. And state government comes up empty — to the tune of an estimated $350 million each year. That’s an impressive sum for a state drowning in red ink and looking for a quick fiscal fix. At the same time, the deficit could be video poker gambling’s ticket to come out from under the table.

The Statehouse press corps is a little cranky these days, and the problem can’t be traced to the coffee.

Seems what’s got everyone’s knickers in a bunch is the lack of a clue exhibited by the new administration’s communi-cations staff. Specifically, administration representatives aren’t returning phone calls to the media in a timely fashion. Actually, they’re barely returning phone calls at all.