Twitter Weekly Updates for all4growth

• @adamradman bluegrass inn on Broadway. And if you are there early in the week, their coyote ugly is actually cool on a slow tues or wed in reply to adamradman #
• You can take the BHO & team out of IL but you can’t take IL out of them. I see this kind of thing all the time.http://bit.ly/eAH33 #
• Clouds of gnats have descended on Central IL. So what do I do? Today I decide to take the wind screen of the Harley. Genius. #
• @adamradman how many do you need? in reply to adamradman #
• Matt Holiday walkoff HR in bottom of the 9th. Cards-Cubs series couldn’t start any better. #
• Close Spending Loopholes to Solve Illinois’ Ongoing Fiscal Crisis – http://eepurl.com/dFYQ #

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State Auditor Finds $150 Million at State Tollway

Got to love this:

The Illinois Tollway understated more than $150 million in revenues, expenses and assets in 2008 because it failed to comply with proper accounting procedures, the state’s fiscal watchdog reported today.

A new audit showed “significant deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting” at the tollway, Illinois Auditor General William Holland’s office said, prompting two state legislators to call for a tougher investigation into the agency’s financial oversight and accounting methods.

“What this says to me is that the tollway authority needs much more oversight to ensure they are counting all the nickels and dimes and making sure they’re following best practices,” said state Sen. Susan Garrett (D-Lake Forest).

The audit noted that the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority corrected the underreported amounts in its final financial statements.

When general accounting principles are used Illinois’ budget is $14.7 billion in the red.  So, I guess finding $150 million at the toll way authority isn’t so bad.  I just wonder if anyone associated with anything having to do with Illinois state government is competent?  Apparently, no one in Illinois accept except the Inspector General, Bill Holland, can do math.

Mark Kirk and Conservative Outreach

In a phone conversation with an old Illinois hand in Washington, I learned that Mark Kirk is reaching out to conservatives.  This morning he gave a real solid performance at Bill Krisol’s Foreign Policy Initiative at the W Hotel in Washington, DC.  Kirk was the lead speaker at a 9.30 am Eastern time panel discussion, titled,   Afghanistan: The War in Washington.  Other panelists were former US Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalizad and Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmit.

That probably means Kirk spent Sunday night in Washington, DC instead of campaigning all weekend in Illinois.  Kristol and his group are solid conservatives and I’m glad Mark Kirk is with them on the war on terror.  I can only speculate that he must’ve come around on counter insurgency operations.  That’s good after his performance on the Iraqi surge.  It’s very reassuring.

However, conservatives in Washington are not where Kirk’s problems lie.  His problem is in Illinois.  The fact that he wasn’t working his behind off in Illinois over the weekend in what will be a very difficult general election campaign should he get the nomination is puzzling given Illinois’ history.  Sen. Charles Percy also preferred campaigning in Washington among foreign policy elites… And that’s how Chuck Percy became a former Senator.

I know Bill Kristol is influential among conservatives.  But I don’t think Bill Kristol is that influential in Illinois circles — conservative or otherwise.  Kirk also has surrogates reaching out to influential conservatives in Illinois.  I don’t think it is an unfair criticism to point out that some conservatives would use the fact that he is rubbing elbows with the establishment in DC and sending surrogates to do the hard work of mending fences in Illinois against him.  I think this strategy is backward.

Rep. Mark Kirk isn’t a Senator, yet.  A lot of his potential colleagues in DC and a lot of Illinois Republicans are working hard for him in Illinois.  You’d think he’d pay them back by working hard in Illinois, instead of playing senator in Washington.

Sen. Durbin: Don’t Cut Off ACORN Funding Until They Are Prosecuted

This is interesting. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), one of just seven senators to vote against de-funding ACORN, says:

“I’m from one of those traditional law schools — you know, first the trial, then the hanging,” Durbin said in an appearance today on MSNBC’sMorning Joe , noting that “three or four employees” terminated have been accused of wrongdoing and they should be investigated and prosecuted.

One would think the Senator would have higher standards for spending your tax dollars.  Usually, when regulating a private industry people such as Durbin will use the mere appearance of a conflict of interest as the standard for government action/inaction.  How many times do we hear that?

Close Spending Loopholes to Solve Illinois’ Ongoing Fiscal Crisis

Commentary

Contact: Greg Blankenship | 217.544.4759 | gkblankenship@all4growth.org

(Springfield, Ill.) While administering first-aid, the first step is to stop the bleeding. The point of the exercise is to control bleeding to forestall shock or death.  The simplest way to stop the bleeding is to simply plug the hole.

For the better part of a decade state government has been bleeding money.  According to  a recent report by Lee Enterprises statehouse bureau chief Kurt Erickson the bleeding includes $2.1 billion in owed bills from last fiscal year, alone.  A report earlier this year from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability — Illinois’ version of the Congressional Budget Office — estimated the state’s fiscal hole to be $14.7 billion.

When you consider that the General Revenue Fund in Illinois is about $26 billion for the fiscal year ending next July 1st, more than half the money needed to fund health care, education, humans services and public safety — and other assorted programs — has already been spent.  In other words, Illinois is bleeding, and bleeding badly.

However, few of our leaders –if any– are offering to stop the bleeding.  Instead, they are offering to pump in more blood.  Even though every drop they pump in will continue to bleed out.

The two main contenders for the Democratic nomination for governor are fighting over who can raise taxes more and what constituency they will use the money to purchase votes from.   Gov. Quinn is sticking to his 50 percent income tax increase.  His challenger, Comptroller Daniel Hynes, wishes to impose a graduated income tax to raise more revenue.  His proposal would even require an amendment to the state constitution.

In the interim both Hynes and Quinn want to raise the cigarette tax by a dollar a pack to pay for more spending.  One wants to use the money to support student aid for college students — i.e. subsidizing higher education.  The other wants to use the money to pay off debt.  Of course like the income tax, the cigarette tax in a state where a pack of smokes is approaching more than $10 per pack isn’t sitting well with the General Assembly.

In addition to all this, last week, the Commission on Forecasting and Accountability released a report examining the expanding of the sales tax to services such as attorney’s fees, hair styling, printing and myriad other services.  By doing so, $7.3 billion could be redirected from the productive private sector into the public sector that produces no goods and services.  It should be noted that fmr. Gov Blagojevich’s gross receipts tax — the largest in state history, or any other state’s history — was $7.2 billion.

Instead of pumping more money into the state budget to only let it bleed out on the other end, maybe Springfield should look at plugging some loopholes.  One such hole is Section 25 of the Fiscal Act.

Section 25 of the Fiscal Act allows a 60 day window in which bills from last year can be paid after the fiscal year has ended and a new budget has begun.  This means state vendors can be paid for work done in the final months of the fiscal year after that year’s appropriations have expired.

As it goes Section 25 spending makes sense.  You need time to collect bills and pay them at the end of the year.  On the other hand, a loophole in the Act allows the state to spend money off budget with no accountability.

Medicaid is the fastest growing and largest line item in the budget.  According to the Commission on Forecasting and Accountability,  “The Section 25 provision allows the State to pay any remaining Medicaid bills from one fiscal year with monies from next years’ appropriations. Because of this, the budget can still appear balanced on a cash basis (or have a lower reported deficit), even though the state may not have sufficient funding for the Medicaid program.”

This allows unfettered spending by Springfield.  If Springfield is $1 billion short for new spending, they can always shift money from Medicaid to other spending and roll over $1 billion in payments to next year.  Don’t have the money next year?  Roll it over again.  The spending doesn’t show up as appropriations.  Therefore the money is hidden and nobody knows the politicians spent it.  On paper Illinois has a balanced budget and the politicians can go home safe in the knowledge they’ve fooled us again.

As long as the patient continues to bleed it makes no sense to pump in more blood products.  Before Springfield even considers taking more of our hard earned money, it needs to start plugging some holes.  Closing the Medicaid spending loophole in Section 25 would be a good start.

# # #

Greg Blankenship is the President of the Illinois Alliance for Growth (www.all4growth.org).  He can be reached at gkblankenship@all4growth.org.

Conservatives Using the Liberal Playbook

Politico says it’s working.

One thing I learned from a Democrat turned Reaganite is that liberals do a lot of things better than conservatives when it comes to politics.  I guess that’s where the whole “stupid party” comes in to play.

Learning from your opponents is just smart politics.  Remember, they’re not stupid.  They’re evil.

Twitter Weekly Updates for all4growth

• @kmrasmussen Hmm… Al “the pall” Dixon & Paul Simon would’ve defunded them. But IL would ignore. I bet IL might not know if they fund them in reply to kmrasmussen #
• @kmrasmussen oh…I’d bet against any action re: ACORN in IL. in reply to kmrasmussen #
• @kellywcobb Sounds like you had fun last night, though. #
• Sources telling Sun Times that Chris Kelly died from aspirin od.http://bit.ly/3s5z2z #
• Whoa! RT @chicagotribune: Ousted Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s former chief fundraiser dies, days before prison term began http://bit.ly/Xww3J #

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No Wonder They Boo Mark Kirk

Stories around the Illinois blogosphere (here and here) report that US Senate candidate Cong. Mark Kirk (R-10) was on the receiving end of a tough reception among Republicans at DuPage County Rally.  It seems people are still upset with his vote for cap and trade.  In today’s Hot Button column Amanda Carpenter, thanks to some investigative work by our friends at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, shows why the anger is justifiable:

“Officials at the Treasury Department think cap-and-trade legislation would cost taxpayers hundreds of billion in taxes, according to internal documents circulated within the agency and provided to The Washington Times.

These estimates were made in Treasury memos, obtained by the Competitive Enterprise Institute through a Freedom of Information Act request that sought information related to proposals originated by Treasury involving “cap-and-trade schemes” that deal with “carbon,” “carbon dioxide” or “greenhouse gases.” The memos were given to The Times by CEI.

The House narrowly passed cap-and-trade legislation earlier this year, and now the Senate stands poised to take up its version of the bill at any time, although it has been largely overshadowed by health care reform efforts. The ultimate cost of the bill to taxpayers has been the subject of fierce debate between supporters and opponents of the legislation. CEI, a free-market think tank that opposes the bill, thinks the Treasury documents prove the legislation would pose a significant burden to the economy.

A memo prepared by Judson Jaffe, who works in the Treasury’s Office of Environment and Energy, referenced President Obama’s remarks on energy policy in his State of the Union Address and said, given the president’s plan to auction emissions allowances, “a cap-and-trade program could generate federal receipts on the order of $100 to $200 billion annually.”

I think it’s official.  It’s Cap & Tax.

It’s noted in the Capital Fax report that,  “US Senate candidate Mark Kirk faced some pretty loud booing and heckling at a recent DuPage County Republican event, which amply showed that he still has problems with the far right.”

Just to be clear.  Only six eight House Republicans voted for cap and trade.  It’s not the “far right” who is against cap and trade. If anyone is out on a plank it’s Mark Kirk.  Insiders I’ve talked with tell me Mark Kirk really regrets that vote.  And Kirk gets that he’s in trouble over it.

I would also note down in coal country it’s not the “far right” who is against cap and trade. It’s everyone at risk of losing their livelihood.  This includes lots of Democrats and lots of union house holds.

Mark Kirk, as the Capitol Fax Blog reports, is a good campaigner who recognizes he has a problem.  Whether he can dispel that cap & tax vote will be a big challenge for him, however.  Flipping on the issue will be portrayed as a lack of conviction in a time period where conviction is called for.  Standing his ground on the issue — especially as information such as the above continues to come out — isn’t tenable.

Blagojevich Saga Takes Bizarre Twist

The death of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s (D-Chicago) chief fundraiser this weekend undoubtedly will help the former governor in his attempt to stave off federal convictions for alleged corruption. There is no doubt that things become more complicated from here on out.

What was believed to be a suicide Saturday has now been termed indeterminate by medical examiners:

A day after Christopher Kelly died in Chicago, a host of questions remained Sunday about the final hours of formerGov. Rod Blagojevich’s onetime top adviser, who was about to start serving a prison term.

Police said Sunday that they didn’t yet know whether Kelly, 51, tried to kill himself by ingesting the drugs found inside the 2007 Cadillac Escalade registered to his roofing company. But a girlfriend told police that Kelly said he wanted to commit suicide in text messages he sent to her.

After an autopsy, the Cook County medical examiner’s office said more studies are needed before determining a cause of death.

Plus, there’s a person whom police called a “mystery man” with gray hair who unsuccessfully tried to pick up Kelly’s SUV from the hospital with keys in hand — whom police are still trying to identify.

“We’re piecing this together as we go along,” Country Club Hills Mayor Dwight Welch said during a news conference Sunday.

Kelly was set to start the nearly 8-year federal sentence this week after pleading guilty to federal mail fraud in an $8.5 million kickback scheme at O’Hare International Airport and to previous tax offenses. A close confidant of Blagojevich’s and his chief fundraiser, Kelly faced intense pressure from prosecutors seeking help in their federal case against the impeached governor.

According to the Tribune story, Blagojevich is already using the death of his fundraiser in his defense:

“Chris Kelly took his life because of the pressure he was under,” Blagojevich said during his show on WLS-AM.

“He refused to make it easier on himself to lie about someone else,” the former governor said, referring to Blagojevich’s pending case. “He refused to lie about someone and not stand up for the truth.”

Vowing to beat his own charges, Blagojevich added: “My friend Chris Kelly’s death will not be in vain.”

So, now we have a mystery man — assumed to be Kelly’s best friend and a girlfriend on top of a wife.  The girlfriend claims that Kelly had threatened suicide which led to those initial reports.  However, Kelly was stabilized at the hospital and was interviewed by police who stated he was lucid.  He was transferred to John Stroger hospital after his condition deteriorated not to a closer county hospital where the man subsequently passed away. This is a mess that will lead to all kinds of conspiracy theories if questions aren’t quickly answered.

Blagojevich gains by not having the threat of his chief fundraiser turning on him and testifying against him. Blagojevich is already blaming the Justice Dept. to driving a man to kill himself.  Giving the determination of prosecutors to flip Kelly, as has been reported, one has to wonder if prosecutors have enough to get the governor.

Suffice it to say that the American paper were quite upset when the government alleged a sitting governor was selling a US Senate seat.  Think of the fallout, now, if the federal prosecutors can’t win a conviction.

With tea parties and health care before the American people, this weekend, this turn in the Blagojevich saga probably wasn’t that noticed.  But the potential for this to become a major story captivating a large segment of the population definitely now exists.

Ahh… welcome to Illinois politics…

Twitter Weekly Updates for all4growth

• @archpundit Larry, that’s hilarious. Lol! in reply to archpundit #
• Maybe I’m jaded by Illinois politics & watching Blago for six years but BHO’s way of speaking well but not saying much is very Blago like. #
• Love Sons of Anarchy, but the actor’s break & clutch work would wreck a lot of Harleys… And hurt too. #
• Rank & File IL GOPer’s really don’t like Mark Kirk so much. http://is.gd/332NG #
• RT @ChristineHall: amused by the coverage of the Obama education speech, more so than the speech itself. #tcot #tlot Ditto for me. #
• It’s beautiful in just about every other part of the country, and drizzling here… some greater power has a sick sense of humor. #

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