Mayor’s Row….by Ned Mitchell

            One of the great things about computers is their ability to store documents and records.  That makes columnists like me able to go back and retrieve words written months or even years ago.  All I have to do is type in a few key words under “search” and my computer immediately will find everything I have ever written with that phase in it.

            Just for fun I thought I would go back in time, actually just this year and talk about the budget crisis in Springfield.  Back in February our Governor whooped it up by announcing the budget for the upcoming year which included a $25 billion dollar plan for a capital spending bill called Illinois Works.  Despite all of the hoop to do laying out a plan to lease the state lottery to pay for this program it went nowhere in the legislature.  As I wrote sometime right after that legislators would not vote for this plan if it did not include “pork” for them to dole out, usually right before election time.

            First the bill went to the Senate where senators gave it a cold shoulder.  The Governor then decided maybe we should have a $34 billion dollar capital spending bill.  Again, I explained that all this did was add another $9 billion dollars for senators to hand out.  Politicians that we elect are really adept at spending our money.  Since the initial bill called “Illinois Works” did not have enough votes to pass, individual senators came forth with ideas that maybe they could support this bill if only they had a little more money to hand out in their districts.  Suddenly enough votes were rounded up in the Senate and the bill amazingly passed.

            Once it passed the Senate it went to the House and ran right into a brick wall by the name of Madigan.  Legislators don’t call this money “pork” they call it a legislator’s “initiative” and that simply means individual legislators are given an amount of money and they and they alone have the discretion to determine who gets this money and how much with no questions asked.  Last year the Governor went through the budget and cancelled all of the House members “initiative” projects other than a few republicans and left the Senate money untouched.  Needless to say this infuriated the House members who had no cash to hand out to the peasants in their districts.

            Madigan was wary of this new program and the bill immediately stalled.  The governor now wanted $34 billion dollars to hand out and the House could not trust him to follow through with his commitment, even though he promised to put the deal in writing. According to Madigan, not only is the Governor’s word no good, apparently it is no good in writing either.

            The next ploy was to tap the considerable skills of SIU President Glenn Poshard and former Speaker of the U S House Dennis Hastert.  They traveled all over for 3 months or so and came up with a little bit of something for everyone.  Again, goodies (tax money) were promised to legislators to vote for this bill.  Senator’s were full of glee as they envisioned millions of dollars coming to each of them to spend as they wish.  The House said, wait a minute, we are not so sure we need to expand gambling and sell state assets to pay for this program.

            I’m not as sure about former Speaker Hastert’s feelings as I have not read his thoughts in the press but Poshard has been sobbing on editorial pages ever since the thing failed in the House and he is still carrying on.  Poshard at one time absolutely opposed expanding gambling and I admired that position.  I still oppose it and Poshard has completely rolled over.  It makes a huge difference when one is running for office and when one has retired from office.  Now that Poshard is heading up the SIU operation he was able to build in millions of dollars for his causes in the “Illinois Works” bill so now he thinks expanding gambling and selling state assets is a wonderful idea.  It is amazing how money changes people’s convictions!

            Just last week a government watchdog group filed suit against the reformer/unreformer Governor and Senate President Emil “I Need A Pay Raise” Jones in an attempt to find out exactly where the legislator “initiative” or “pork”, whichever you prefer, money has been spent.  One Chicago newspaper last week revealed $4.7 million dollars of our money was spent on after school programs in Chicago that did not exist.  Not only was that bad enough but this year the legislature put in $9 million dollars for the same program even though nobody can find the $4.7 million that was handed out last year.  The House of Representatives has always made available a list of projects that each legislator has so anyone can see where this money is being spent.  The Governor and President Jones refuse to disclose where their “initiative” or “pork” money is being spent even though it is all tax money.  Talk about open government, this dynamic duo spends tax money and then has the audacity to think that taxpayers are not entitled to see where the money went.  I can safely predict that after spending thousands of dollars on legal fees the Governor and Jones will lose this case and be forced to release information that should have been done as soon as a request was made.  What do they have to hide?  I would suspect that once the “cat is out of the bag” we will see millions and millions of dollars that are completely unaccounted for just like the after school program.  If they don’t have anything to hide why not just tell everyone where the money has went in the past?  It is unfortunate that a government watch dog group had to file a lawsuit to see what is public information.

            The question now for legislators, Poshard and Hastert is, would you support a scaled down version of the “Illinois Works” bill?  Would you still be on board if part or all of your projects were eliminated?  Would you still think this is a good idea if we funded it with a tax increase instead of expanded gambling?  Let me answer that for you, No, No, and No!

            I just read a national poll that found that 46% of the American public simply do not care about politics.  That is sad when we consider the sacrifices that many have made in laying down their lives so that we might have the freedom to vote.  The end result is that politicians in this state and this country and 46% of us no longer care enough to do something about it.  Are you one of them?

            We are sorry to report the death of Bob “Bob Cat” Gibbons of Sesser.  “Bob Cat” as he was known to all of us was a colorful guy who retired from the coal mines.  “Bob Cat” and I had many a conversation waiting at the local convenience store on the Benton Evening News to be dropped off.  We discussed weather, sports, politics, gardening, and just about anything that would come up for two “experts” like us to solve.  Our condolences go out to his wife Josephine and all of the family.