This story by Hal Dardick and Ray Long and appeared on the Chicago Tribune's front page Wednesday.
The first time I noticed Jack Franks enabling Chicago was the Red Light Camera bill.
That made the Speed Camera bill possible.
Now Democrat Franks is the chief joint sponsor of the bill allowing Chicago and other local governments to get the state to collect overdue fines from citizens.
Although there is only one Chicago legislator on the sponsorship list, the bill was filed by House Speaker Mike Madigan.
Isn’t that special?
So suburban and Downstate legislators will take the heat for this bill that gives government still more power to extract money from the citizenry.
And, whose committee approved the bill?
If you guessed Jack Franks’, you will get some not-yet-stale Valentine’s Day candy. (Pick up required.)
Franks thought the bill was so good that he convinced LaSalle County’s Frank Mautino to put him on as the first joint sponsor the day the bill passed…which was two days after Madigan handed over the bill to Mautino.
All lickity split.
Who says the Illinois House can’t move rapidly when plucking more feathers out of the taxpaying goose is on the agenda?
Can’t you just hear Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel calling the Speaker?
“Mike, I need a favor. I need to get a bill passed to allow me to collect fines from suburbanites.”
“I’ll take care of it,” the Speaker replied.
And he did.
With the help of Marengo’s Jack Franks.
In his interview with the Chicago Tribune, Franks said it was “‘a common sense type of bill’ at a time when local governments are feeling a major cash crunch.”
He went further: “It’s also a question of fundamental fairness. You shouldn’t get a windfall from one government when you owe another government some money.”
Of course the almost 50% of the American public who don’t pay income taxes won’t be hurt.
Maybe deductions should be made from earned income tax credits, too. 30% get them. Why should they be exempt from this fine extraction mechanism?
Oh, I forgot.
This is just aimed at us taxpayers.
In the State Senate, local legislators voted as follows:
- Pam Althoff – Not Voting
- Dan Duffy – Yes
- Chris Lauzen – Yes
In the House, the local votes were
- Jack Franks -Yes
- Kent Gaffney – Yes
- Mike Tryon – Yes
Only one legislator dared to anger the local government lobbyists:
Great article. I like how there is no real discussion on what the appeal process would be for something like this, and if you do appeal it, you also have to pay a $15 processing fee to the great Judy Baar Topinka and her Comptroller’s Office.
Another classic example of government doing everything in it’s power to grab money from the taxpayers.
Since when is it a windfall to get your own money back from Springfield?