McHenry County Blog

Jim Oberweis earned a front page story in the Chicago Tribune for his 70 MPH speed limit bill.

Back when Governor Dan Walker was in office, the gas crisis was in full swing.

One day while the General Assembly was in session, he ordered the speed limit in Illinois to be dropped to 55 miles per hour.

On the way home, I was dutifully driving 55 MPH and a State Police car whizzed past me.

Though some sense of perverse duty I caught up to him flashed my lights and he pulled over.

“Did you know Governor Walker has lowered the speed limit to 55?” I asked.

He didn’t, so I suggested he check it out and drove on.

Now State Senator Jim Oberweis has passed a bill through the State Senate that would set the speed limit on Interstates to 70 MPH.

And it’s on the House floor.

The Chicago Tribune’s Editorial Board members editorialized against it after an article about Oberweis’ accomplishment made the front page.

I have to wonder if any those Board members drive outside of the Chicago metropolitan area.

The Chicago Tribune doesn’t like Jim Oberweis’
higher speed limit idea.

But, it’s not just Chicago influencials who don’t want people driving at a legal 70 miles per hour on Illinois’ boring interstates.

Back when Governor Jim Edgar was in office, the speed limit on Tollways outside of the six-county area was 70 MPH.

That didn’t satisfy Edgar, who did very little traveling on interstates. (He flew in state planes.)

Without asking the General Assembly, he lowed that speed limit to 65 MPH.

After all, he did appoint the members of the Toll Highway Authority and, when a Governor asks for something, he usually gets it.

At least the Tribune admits, “To an extent, Illinois would be playing catch-up. More than 30 states already allow motorists to travel 70 or 75 mph. Utah allows 80 mph.” It also notes that Texas is at 85 MPH.

One can understand why the Tribune would like to make is harder to get out of Illinois. After all, it sells few papers along Interstates leading to places better to live.

Oberweis had been luck promoting a 70 mile per hour speed limit than I did when I advanced it as part of my campaign for Governor on the Libertarian Party slate in 2002.

Maybe it’s been enough years that common sense will prevail.

The Securities Exchange Commission seal.

Maybe that headline is a little bold, but we’re talking Rod Blagojevich here.   Read the following press release from the United State Securities Exchange Commission and write your own in the comment section:

SEC Charges Illinois for Misleading Pension Disclosures

Washington, D.C., March 11, 2013 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged the State of Illinois with securities fraud for misleading municipal bond investors about the state’s approach to funding its pension obligations.

[You can read the SEC order here.]

An SEC investigation revealed that Illinois failed to inform investors about the impact of problems with its pension funding schedule as the state offered and sold more than $2.2 billion worth of municipal bonds from 2005 to early 2009.

Illinois failed to disclose that its statutory plan significantly underfunded the state’s pension obligations and increased the risk to its overall financial condition.

The state also misled investors about the effect of changes to its statutory plan.

Illinois, which implemented a number of remedial actions and issued corrective disclosures beginning in 2009, agreed to settle the SEC’s charges.

“Municipal investors are no less entitled to truthful risk disclosures than other investors,” said George S. Canellos, Acting Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.

“Time after time, Illinois failed to inform its bond investors about the risk to its financial condition posed by the structural underfunding of its pension system.” [Emphasis added.]

Elaine Greenberg, Chief of the SEC’s Municipal Securities and Public Pensions Unit, added, “Regardless of the funding methodology they choose, municipal issuers must provide accurate and complete pension disclosures including the effects of material changes to their pension plans. Public pension disclosure by municipal issuers continues to be a top priority of the unit.”

According to the SEC’s order instituting settled administrative proceedings against Illinois, the state established a 50-year pension contribution schedule in the Illinois Pension Funding Act that was enacted in 1994.

The schedule proved insufficient to cover both the cost of benefits accrued in a current year and a payment to amortize the plans’ unfunded actuarial liability.

The statutory plan structurally underfunded the state’s pension obligations and backloaded the majority of pension contributions far into the future.  [This was passed while Jim Edgar was Governor.]

This structure imposed significant stress on the pension systems and the state’s ability to meet its competing obligations – a condition that worsened over time.

The SEC’s order finds that Illinois misled investors about the effect of changes to its funding plan, particularly pension holidays enacted in 2005.

Although the state disclosed the pension holidays and other legislative amendments to the plan, Illinois did not disclose the effect of those changes on the contribution schedule and its ability to meet its pension obligations. [Emphasis added.]

The state’s misleading disclosures resulted from various institutional failures.

As a result, Illinois lacked proper mechanisms to identify and evaluate relevant information about its pension systems into its disclosures.

For example, Illinois had not adopted or implemented sufficient

• controls
• policies or
• procedures

to ensure that material information about the state’s pension plan was assembled and communicated to individuals responsible for bond disclosures.

The state also did not adequately train personnel involved in the disclosure process or retain disclosure counsel.

According to the SEC’s order, Illinois took multiple steps beginning in 2009 to correct process deficiencies and enhance its pension disclosures.

The state issued significantly improved disclosures in the pension section of its bond offering documents, retained disclosure counsel, and instituted written policies and procedures as well as implemented disclosure controls and training programs.

The state designated a disclosure committee to assemble and evaluate pension disclosures.

In reaching a settlement, the Commission considered these and other remedial acts by Illinois and its cooperation with SEC staff during the investigation.

Without admitting or denying the findings, Illinois consented to the SEC’s order to cease and desist from committing or causing any violations of Sections 17(a)(2) and 17(a)(3) of the Securities Act of 1933.

The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Peter K. M. Chan along with Paul M. G. Helms in the Chicago Regional Office and Eric A. Celauro and Sally J. Hewitt in the Municipal Securities and Public Pensions Unit. They were assisted by other specialists in the unit including Joseph O. Chimienti, Creighton Papier, and Jonathan Wilcox.

This enforcement action marks the second time that the SEC has charged a state with violating federal securities laws in their public pension disclosures.

The SEC charged New Jersey in 2010 with misleading municipal bond investors about its underfunding of the state’s two largest pension plans.

Additional information about the SEC’s initiatives in the area of municipal securities can be found in its Report on the Municipal Securities Market released last year.

Headline about a hybrid pension plan in the State Journal-Register

The year the State of Illinois decided to improved the pension system of state employees, Missouri took action on its employee pension system, too.

The pension was quite poor compared to other states.

Governor Jim Edgar’s administration and the AFSMCE union agreed on a trade-off.

No raises for a year in return for a better pension.

Because I held the pretty meaningless (all GOP budgeting power was held tightly by Lee Daniels) title of Committee Spokesman on one of the too many House Appropriations Committees, I was invited to a meeting of those with similar titles in a small meeting room in the Governor’s part of the State Capitol.

When the proposal was announced, I brought up what Missouri had just done.

I was familiar with it because the Sunday St. Louis Post-Dispatch had run a story about it in its legislative round-up of what happened in the Missouri legislative session which had just ended.

And, what had Missouri politicians done?

They had gone from a defined benefit program to one in which half of retirement benefits were defined benefits (read pension) and half were to be derived from defined contributions (think 401(k) plans).

Not yet realizing the lack of a role I had in the meeting, I suggested it might be better to follow Missouri’s example.

That’s when I learned the deal had been cut and we were being told of it ahead of other legislators because of the alleged role we had in the budgetary process.

When I read one of the front page stories in Springfield’s State Journal-Register on Sunday before going to the Old Capitol Art Fair for a second time, one headline read,

Hybrid plan urged for pensions

It was a proposal by two University of Illinois professors, Jeffrey Brown and Robert Rich.

One of them said the idea had been presented.

The State Employee Retirement System was funded at 34.94% at the end of last June, so I guess Jim Edgar’s contract didn’t work out too well for taxpayers.

This Safe Haven sign is in front of Crystal Lake's City Hall.

There is a concept used in campaigns that could be called a “political shield.”

Abortion being a distasteful subject not often discussed in private or public is, nevertheless, one that motivates political activists and, at least on the pro-choice side of the equation, contributors.

So what do those on the Pro-Choice side of the spectrum use to soften the image of the aborted “fetus,” as they would label it.

In the 1990′s, it was adoption.

Pro-Choice politicians like Jim Edgar pushed adoption.

At least his wife Brenda did.

For some, the abstract concept of “a woman’s right to choose” is outright racism. I learned that firsthand when I heard a white female state representative, whom I respected on all other spectra, say during a debate on a bill that was about abortion (although not on the surface), “They’re too many black babies.”

Not that I am suggesting that Brenda Edgar was a racist. Neither are probably most other who label themselves “Pro-Choice.”

I think Brenda was just trying to soften her husband’s image of being a supporter of abortion.

Then another “shield” entered the political firmament.

Its warm and fuzzy name was “Safe Haven.”

The idea was that women who gave birth, but decided they could not care for their newborn, would be able to hand them over to someone officially designated to take and provide immediate care without fear of being charged with child abandonment.

No need to risk criminal prosecution by disposing of a baby in a garbage bin.

Not a bad idea.

But not a big idea.

Not big results.

69 babies saved in ten years, according to the Save Abandoned Babies Foundation.

Worth doing, but not something that would made a dent in the number of abortions.

While state statistics for the Safe Haven program are apparently easy to calculate, when I tried to find the number of abortions in Illinois in the last ten years at the Centers for Disease Control (and, now, “Prevention”) are not available. The most recent abortion number was for 2007, released last November.

They total 458,660 from 1998-2007.

The Chicago Tribune though the Safe Haven program was worth a front page story.

Strangely, all years did not agree with the statistics I later found at the Illinois Department of Public Health web site. The state statistics appear below:

• 2000 – 45,884
• 2001 – 46,546
• 2002 – 46,945
• 2003 – 42,228
• 2004 – 43,537
• 2005 – 43,409
• 2006 – 46,467
• 2007 – 45,298
• 2008 – 47,717
• 2009 – 46,077

The Illinois DPH total from 2000-2009 was 454,108 abortions.  (The CDC and IDPH figures do not match for 2003. Can’t tell you why.)

Dividing the 69 babies saved by the Safe Haven program by the 458,660 babies who died from abortions over a ten-year period reported by the CDC equals 0.00015%.

69 divided by the IDPH decade figure of 454,108 is 0.000152.

Both are truly a rounding errors.

Not that the results were not worth the effort.

But featuring 69 babies saved when over 450,000 were lost makes me wonder why the Safe Haven program was worth a front page story in Saturday’s Chicago Tribune.

With not a word about the over 450,000 babies who did not make it out of the womb alive.

Jim Tobin’s National Taxpayers United of Illinois has revealed the top 50 pensions for the General Assembly Retirement Fund.

It doesn’t have many pensioners, but the legislative retirement fund has some big payouts.

Part of the reason is that statewide elected officials can opt in.

While he was in office, for instance, Governor Jim Thompson announced that he would be in the same pension fund that regular state employees paid into.  Right before leaving office that changed.  He transferred his pension credits to the GA Retirement System.

Indeed many of the largest pensions you see below are the result of an ex-legislator getting a well-paying job for a while and transferring in the pension credits in their new public pension fund back to the more lucrative legislative system.

Tobin’s press release follows:

TOP 50 GA PENSIONS REVEAL MILLION DOLLAR PAYOUTS AS TAX INCREASE LOOMS

CHICAGO–Jim Tobin, President of National Taxpayers United of Illinois (NTUI), today released the latest pension study of pension researcher Bill Zettler: the Top Fifty pensions received by former members of the Illinois General Assembly.

“Governor Quinn and the lame duck General Assembly are desperate to increase tax revenues any way they can to ensure that these outrageous, lavish pensions are available to themselves when they retire.

“Under the current pension program, General Assembly members are guaranteed to be millionaires if they can collect for only eight to ten years.  Protecting this rite of passage has become their highest priority, despite the terrible financial situation in which most Illinoisans find themselves.

“Under the guise of securing the financial future of the Illinois general fund, Quinn and his conspirators are trying to push any tax increases that they can.”

“If Quinn can’t get HB 174 with the 67% income tax increase through the house, he will push to get a 33% income tax increase passed.

“At the same time, there are efforts to increase the gasoline tax by an unknown amount, the cigarette tax by $1 per pack, and a new 7-10% sales tax on 39 services.

“The primary objective is to pump 15 billion taxpayer dollars out of taxpayer pockets and into the pension and payroll funds of the robber barons that are bankrupting the great state of Illinois, not to secure the financial future as they would have us believe.”

“Do you recognize any of these pension millionaires? Figures are as of 10/1/2010.  A complete list can be viewed at www.ntui.org.
Mo. Pension         Yearly Pension         Total Pension Paid So Far
Arthur Berman                     $16,459               $197,503           $1,449,640
Judy Barr Topinka              $12,144                 $145,727            $402,229
Jim Edgar                           $10,910                 $130,925             $1,106,372
James R. Thompson           $10,601                 $127,215             $1,547,836
James “Pate” Philip             $10,551                 $126,615             $713,029
Dawn Clark Netsch             $10,143                 $121,720             $1,476,711
Walter Dudycz                     $7,661                 $91,937                $449,128

“Jim Edgar and James R. Thompson engineered the largest tax increases ever passed in Illinois. Arthur Berman was the author of the Berman Tax Increase Amendment. Dawn Clark Netsch never met a tax she didn’t like.”

“I urge members of the Illinois General Assembly to vote in the interest of the constituents they serve and not their own best interest.”

How do legislators manage to hike their pensions so much?

Some get a short-term position paying a lot more than they received in their last year as a state legislator. Former State Senator John Friedland, for example, was hired as a lobbyist by the Elgin Sanitary District for a couple of months as a hefty salary. That boosted his base salary.

Add three percent extra each year, which all on public pensions in Illinois receive and it mounts up over time.

Others like Terry Stezco lose an election and get a well-paying local governmental job. In his case, Cook County Assessor Jim Houlihan hired him.

Others get appointed to head state departments. Chuck Hartke, for instance, was appointed Director of the Department of Agriculture.

All can transfer pension credits from the new pension system and their final salaries–upon which their pension is based–back into the General Assembly Retirement System.

The Daily Herald style book can’t bring itself to use the words “illegal aliens,” but John Patterson’s story about the Illinois Auditor General’s study of Rod Blagojevich’s All Kids taxpayer-subsidized health care program says 75% of 71,665 children on the program were “ undocumented immigrants.”

$55 million.

All from state tax dollars, because Federal Medicaid will only match state money 50-50 when they are in the country legally.

Some doctors figured out they would not get paid.

Since all Illinois children needing assistance were already covered by the Governor Jim Edgar-initiated Kids Care, it was obvious from the git-go that Blagojevich and the Democrats were just trying to gain political support from people they hoped would be future citizens…if amnesty were again enacted by Congress.

As time went on, it became more important to doctors.

Meanwhile, the program has made Illinois a magnet for illegal aliens wanting health taxpayer-funded health care for their children.

It’s evidence of what the Daily Herald reported two years ago.

More information here.

You can find the summary of the Auditor General’s report here.

As U.S. House Democratic Party Speaker Tip O’Neill said,

“All politics is local.”

So, I guess that puts McHenry County Blog in the right place for those who want to know about “local.”

That’s what McLean County Pundit reminds readers on its masthead.

State Senator Pam Althoff

Today my mailbox was graced with a large envelope from State Senator Pam Althoff (R-McHenry).

I figured it was an invitation to a fundraiser. A fancy fund raiser. It was about that size. It had a stamp, although now that I look at it closely, it’s probably a bulk mail stamp. (Did you know people are more likely to open a letter, if you put a commemorative stamp on it?)

Anyway the letter wasn’t personalized. It was to

“Dear Republican Neighbor”

That seems to be stretching it a bit since I don’t even know where Pam lives, but politicians take liberties with words like “neighbor.”

People skim letters like this. At least I do.

There’s bold face type to help skimmers figure out what is important.

State Senator Pam Althoff's correspondence supporting State Senator Kirk Dillard for governor.

I see former Governor Jim Edgar’s name first.

Befitting a letter endorsing Kirk Dillard, Edgar’s name shows up twice.

But looking at it again, I see this paragraph:

“The people of Illinois deserve nothing less than a Governor who will put taxpayers first…”

Had to stop there, because my one big beef with Kirk, which I talked to him about at his reception held at his wife’s great-great-great something grandfather and former (first elected in 1865) Governor Richard J. Ogelsby‘s and grandmother’s home in Decatur during the last GOP state convention and, more recently, when he came to talk to the ladies at 1776 in Crystal Lake, was his vote to triple the RTA sales tax.  It ill cost McHenry County taxpayers on the order of $9 million a year times three.  And we are the smallest collar county

And, now I see he has the endorsement of the IEA, the Illinois Education Association, for those of you who don’t follow state politics. That the biggest teachers’ union and one does not have to watch state politics too closely to know what they want—higher income taxes.

Anyway, the letter arrived yesterday.

Was it the day that former Governor Jim Edgar endorsed State Senator Kirk Dillard for the Republican nomination for governor or the day after?

Had Google’s Blogger allowed me to post an article whatever day it was, I would have done so.

I was reminded I did not when a letter endorsing Dillard arrived in Friday’s mail.

It wasn’t personalized. Just a “Skinner Household” piece.

The corner card of the envelope reminded us that it was from “GOVERNOR JIM EDGAR.”

Oh, well.

One has to have a big ego if one is elected governor.

Edgar pitches Dillard’s role as his chief of staff during tough economic times.

Fair enough.

Edgar asks “Friends” to support Dillard’s campaign by volunteering or putting up a yard sign.

Strangely, no way is given to contact the Dillard campaign.

Here’s what McHenry resident Steve Stanek wrote the Chicago Sun-Times about those folks in Springfield

To the editor:

“Down in Springfield, it’s fool-the-taxpayer time,” the Sun-Times wrote (“If this is reform, what’s with the loopholes?” editorial, May 29). When is it not fool-the-taxpayer time?

On top of their sham campaign reform, Gov. Quinn and certain lawmakers want a “temporary” income tax increase in place of Quinn’s permanent 50 percent increase, which apparently cannot win enough votes to pass.

Remember, a “temporary” income tax increase became permanent under Gov. Jim Edgar.

That move was supposed to fix the state’s budget. Instead, budget woes have multiplied.

Tax increases simply enable more of the corrupt and wasteful spending that plagues this state. Tell the conniving manipulators who run Illinois no more tax increases!

Steve Stanek

The letter from Skokie’s Rick Singer isn’t bad either. Click to enlarge.

= = = = =
The snake oil salesman is from a 50-year old cartoon on YouTube, “Make Mine Freedom,” a “Moving Minutes” Production by John Sutherland for the Extension Division of Harding College. It’s a defense of capitalism.

I emailed each of the legislators who represent parts of McHenry County asking if they had a statement on Governor Pat Quinn’s proposal to hike income tax rates by 50%.

The Daily Herald has an article today on that topic, as you can see from the graphic I found on its web site.

So far, I have heard nothing.

When former Governor Jim Edgar made his proposal to raise income taxes, I walked out of the House Republican caucus and told the Sun-Times reporter, “It’s dead on arrival.”

A bit presumptuous on my part, but Senate President Pate Philip took the same position, so it turned out OK.

Jack Franks does have a comment in the Daily Herald story, but he doesn’t say he is going to vote against the tax hike plan.