Mayor’s Row……by Ned Mitchell
The Illinois State Legislature several months ago set April 7th as their final day in Springfield. Much to do was made about the early date to be out of town and plans were made by legislators to get out of Dodge early. The only problem is they can’t seem to agree on a budget. With democrats in control of the House, the Senate, and the Governor’s empty mansion one would think it would be easy to get the business of the people done and move on. Last year when our pension funds were hit and state employees and retired teachers were robbed all this was wrapped up into one neat little package that would be painless this year. This being an election year the democrats in charge wisely thought it would be great to get the bad news over last year in the hopes that we would all forget it by this year. That plan would have worked great except for the fact that now the reformer/unreformer governor has increased spending this year. Speaker Madigan has gone his own direction saying we can’t afford the governor’s spending and President of the Senate Emil Jones is off on his own path. Regardless of anyone’s thoughts on the budget the three democrat leaders, Governor, Speaker, President of the Senate, are meeting in closed door negotiations. They will come up with a budget and throw it out to the legislators and tell them to pass it. They will pass it without ever reading it or else they will get no pork sandwiches for their districts. I say sandwiches down here because that is all we will get. Up there (Chicago), they will get the 7 course pork meal and we’ll get the leftovers made into a sandwich down here. Hey, we must all be happy though because we don’t hear much complaining! I have a friend who always said “if you can’t get a meal, take a sandwich.” Make mine a double!
Last week republicans blocked two capital spending bills and it is just politics as usual in Springfield. Republicans complain that democrats have no revenue stream to pay for this outlandish bill and they are right. Democrats complain that republicans simply don’t want the bills to pass because it will give the reformer/unreformer hundreds of ribbons to cut and a lot of ground breaking ceremonies to attend from now until the election this fall. Democrats are right in that assumption too. In the middle of all this is where you find the average Joe, left out once again due to partisan nit picking between the democrats and republicans. Another interesting angle on this story involves the reformer/unreformer governor voting “NO” back in the 90’s when he was a state representative on a republican spending bill that called for borrowing about $400 million dollars that would build schools, roads, and bridges. Now he wants to publicly berate members of the opposite party for voting against $4 BILLION dollars in new debt. How is the bill different now when he says it will go to build schools, roads, and bridges? Where is the logic in that? What goes around does sometimes come back around! Sometimes the past comes back to haunt the present.
While the reformer/unreformer governor says he has cut government spending next year’s budget is $54 billion dollars as compared to last year’s $52 billion dollar budget. I’m no financial genius but how do you increase a budget by $2 billion dollars from one year to the next and call that cutting government spending? It surely must be some new sort of math that is being taught these days.
There are many interesting stories in state wide newspapers these days picking apart the budget and looking for all those pork sandwiches that our politicians are notorious for dishing out. A private college was given $1 million dollars for a new soccer field and another college was given $5 million dollars for a new dance performing arts building while gays and lesbians celebrated $6 million dollars for a new center in Chicago. Some folks are questioning how we could be spending money on these ventures while at the same time there is a great shortage of beds to treat mentally ill patients and why there is a long waiting list to get into a veteran’s home. I don’t have the answer to those questions but I’ll bet if you care enough you could ask your legislator.
On top of all the budget woes there is also a bill up that will increase the salaries of elected officials in Illinois, except of course local officials. Legislators and state wide office holders are looking at a possible 10% pay increase. Never mind the fact that today we are $2 billion dollars behind in payments to doctors and other medical providers. Senate President Jones has been quoted as saying some of his flock want pay raises. I’d say 10% is a pretty hefty pay raise but who am I to question that. It will be interesting to see just which senators vote for this. I’ll be watching and so will a lot of other folks.
Just a quick lesson here in how things work. If you are a mayor, alderman, county board member or other local elected official you must vote to adjust your salary right before you run for election. This was set up by the legislature to make taxpayers aware of how much your local officers are being paid and if they get a pay raise they have to vote it in right before they run for office. That is a pretty simple concept and keeps all of us honest when it comes to determining how much we think our time is worth for the office we hold. That is great and it works, only problem is the legislature forgot to include themselves’ in this bill. They get a pay raise when some bogus committee recommends it and it all takes place months before they have to run for election. It looks to me like we should all be on the same page here in Illinois.
My idea for a Three Strikes-You’re Out law in Illinois drew some interesting comments and thus far nobody is opposed to the idea. My wife’s dad and his family visited parents Dean and Margaret Goessman in Sesser last week and in conversation with him he was surprised that Illinois did not have such a law. They live in the State of Washington and they have that law out there as does California and I am sure many others. Consider the two Chicago thugs who last week pointed guns at an off duty Chicago police officer sitting at a stop light. The officer recognized one of the thugs as a guy he had broken up a fight with previously that night. Before the two thugs could get off a shot the officer shot and killed both of them in their car. Too bad, so sad, but one of these thugs had been arrested 26 times. So you tell me, here we have two thugs with dozens of arrests on violent crimes, why are they still on the streets? They were both convicted felons with no FOID cards yet both had guns. Guns are outlawed in Chicago. A felon cannot possess a gun in Illinois. Nobody can have a gun in Illinois without a FOID card. This bunch must have slipped through the cracks in the system but one thing about it they won’t be around to commit any more crimes. Are gun laws working in Illinois? What would have happened if this off duty cop would not have had his weapon with him? Interesting questions!
Keep in mind the town wide clean up is April 24th in the south end of town and April 26th in the north end. We are going to continue our clean up efforts this year and we have several places targets already. Two houses have came down recently and in the next few weeks two more will come down. Workers are starting to dismantle the old Wing Lumber Company too so our town will continue to look better as we work together.
Happy birthday to my mother, Rose Mary Mitchell who turned 87 on Monday!
A card or visit to Norma McAtee and Pat Doerr of Sesser would be nice. They were injured in a car accident last week. We wish the best for these two fine ladies.
If you need us give us a call at 625-3611 or 625-5322 or write nedmitchell@verizon.net or www.sesser.org.
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