McHenry County Blog

The following was written by my former colleague Penny Pullen. She serves as state president for Eagle Forum of Illinois and is active in Republicans of Wheeling Township.

“No man’s life, liberty or property is safe while the legislature is in session.”

Penny Pullen

These true words were written in a 19th-century New York court decision, and they are still true today.

It is of some comfort that we have reached the midpoint in the General Assembly’s election-year session without yet being clobbered by a tax increase.

But no Illinois citizen can afford to assume our lawmakers will not yet commit what would appear to us as a rash act of political suicide. A lot of factors go into the collective decisions that beset us from Springfield.

Here are some realities that “we the people” do not automatically grasp:

• The hallways, chambers and offices of a Capitol building are constructed with a unique brand of highly resistant insulation. (It’s only a façade, but it’s convincing to those who enter the cocoon of a legislative session, and too seldom is it penetrated by an aroused citizenry.)
• Lobbyists not only have access to lawmakers to present the unique point of view they are paid to offer; they also have built relationships with the senators and representatives over sometimes years or even decades. (How many ordinary citizens have even bothered to meet their elected lawmakers, let alone developed a relationship?)
• Special interest groups dominate the campaign fundraising for those who hold the power to aid, abet or hinder their particular interest. (Have ordinary citizens shown themselves helpful when the going gets rough, or have they sat out the necessary process of offering financial backing to a candidate who’s doing the right thing?) Campaign contributions are no guarantee that a lawmaker will vote in line with the contributor, but they certainly and understandably open the door to friendly conversation, which can be just one step away from persuasion.
• Gov. Quinn is determined to raise our taxes, and he can wield power to get what he wants. (It’s up to “we the people,” for whom he has always claimed to be speaking, to make clear that this year, on this question, Pat Quinn does not speak for us!)
• Unique tactics are available to the governor, and he is using them: Never before have legislators’ landlords been stiffed by the state for legislative office rent, making the legislators themselves logical participants in the “Enough-already – let’s-raise-taxes-to-ease-the-pain” coalition. (Yes, that looks to the ordinary person like an oxymoron, but the governor is inflicting pain on certain segments – like the government schools lobby – for the express purpose of getting them to beg for a tax increase.)

Having been an elected State Representative for 16 years, I can tell you this: Anything can happen when the legislature is in session; it doesn’t have to make sense to “we the people.”

But, an aroused, engaged citizenry – even if only for these critical days and weeks (though sustained engagement is so much better!) – can produce enough angst in a re-election-driven legislator to bring him to his senses.

The single worst thing a citizen can do right now, though, is to assume that, this being an election year, we’re safe from legislators doing dumb things.

That New York judge knew what he was talking about.

Pressure will fill the House and Senate chambers in Springfield all the way to adjournment, be that May 31 or July 15; the real question is, whose pressure?

Will pressure from the voters exceed pressure from the usual sources of power?

It’s up to “we the people.”

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Penny Pullen served in Springfield from 1977-1993 as an elected State Representative and was a member of the House Republican Leadership from 1983-1993. She authored the legislation which, in 1983, repealed the state inheritance tax and was the leading Springfield lawmaker on pro-life reforms and on public health strategies to contain the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Yesterday while picking my son up at school a little after 2 o’clock, I heard the female newsreader talking about Governor Pat Quinn’s proposed “one percent” income tax increase.

Did whoever wrote the script pass junior high school math?

Those who have darker views of this gross mistake might wonder if WBBM management is trying to frame the 33% income tax hike issue in a manner that might dampen down opposition.

You know whenever a news source says the increase is “one percent” or even “one percentage point” that it is trying to minimize the magnitude of the increase.

If a news source uses both “33%” and “one percentage point” in its report, then it’s attempting to describe what’s happening in a more rational manner.

This is not the first instance of media bias on this issue that I have noticed.

Yesterday, I pointed to three liberal news sources in which Governor Pat Quinn’s proposed 33% income tax hike was described as a “one percent” increase.

My research was incomplete.

Since then, I have found that Chicago’s Public Broadcasting Station is similarly math impaired.

Take a look for yourself at the headline below:

Click to enlarge.

I’ll pay a 1% increase; they can pay the 33%.
Call it a penalty for not learning junior high school math.

Here we go again.

The liberal apologists in the media are promoting the Governor Pat Quinn’s 33% income tax increase as a “one percent increase.”

Maybe it’s not their liberal bent.

Maybe they have problems with math.

The first notice of this impairment I heard was on WBBM News Radio 78 while picking up my son from school just after 2 PM. The announcer led into the tax hike story by saying it was a

“one percent increase.”

The reporter on the story got it right.

He identified it immediately thereafter as a “33% increase.”

Charles Thomas incorrectly describes Governor Pat Quinn's proposal as a "one percent increase."

hen, on the ABC Channel 7 newscast, Charles Thomas, the man who replaced Andy Shaw, said it was

a “one percent increase.”

Capitol Fax had this incorrect story up from shortly before Governor Pat Quinn's 33% income tax hike proposal was made.

I later noticed that Rich Miller at Capitol Fax Blog headlined his income tax article with the incorrect “one percent tax hike for schools.”

Specifically:

Budget address live blog – Quinn proposes one percent tax hike for schools

Wednesday, Mar 10, 2010
• Have at it in comments. Thanks.

That was just before Quinn’s noon speech.

Added later:

* I’m told that the one percent tax surcharge would bring in somewhere between $2.8 and $3 billion. Wish I knew that when I was on live TV and was asked the question cold.

None of the readers for over six hours pointed out that Governor Pat Quinn's proposal was for a 33% income tax hike, not the 1% hike Rich Miller pomoted with his incorrect headline and description.

It was not until more than SIX hours later that anyone corrected Miller:

- Elin – Wednesday, Mar 10, 10 @ 6:13 pm:A one percent tax increase would bring in far less than $2.8 billion or $3 billion. A 33 percent tax increase, on the other hand…

And, as of over nineteen hours after it was originally posted, it remains incorrect.

But, it served its purpose, if, indeed, it was deliberate and not a mistake.

Reporters and political opinion leaders all over the state were told it was a “one percent tax hike.”

Can it be that reporters really so bad at very simple math?

Maybe so.

Even the Chicago Sun-Times got it wrong:

Even the Chicago Sun-Times wrote one percent was the size of the tax hike. Message to liberal tax hikers: one percentage point divided by three percentage points equals 33%, not 1%.

Article announcing Govenor Pat Quinn plans to propose taking away 30% of the amount of income tax revenue sharing now provided cities and villages.

When city leaders read this Tribune article saying that Pat Quinn expects them to “share the pain,” there will be gnashing of teeth.

Apparently Quinn has decided to cut the $1 billion a year income tax revenue sharing by 30%. That will save $300 million, of course.

The cities got a cut of the income tax when the deal was put together by Republican Governor Richard Ogilvie way back in 1969.

It never made sense to me.

Why should local officials get a pot of money without taking any heat for hiking taxes?

10% of the total amount collected?

Better to take any heat little that comes with raising taxes, e.g., the 75% Crystal Lake city sales tax hike that Mayor Aaron Shepley and six of his city council members (all but Jeff Throsen) supported.

In his latest press release, State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo) called on colleagues to withdraw all bills that would add to state spending.

State Senator Pam Altoff disagrees with St. Rep. Jack Franks that this is not the time to be introducing bills to increase spending. She introduced House Bill 3583 to provide low interest loans to waterfront property owners to move from sea walls to riprapping or bioengineered shorelines. "There's not necessaily a better time to introduce a new program," she told the North West Herald in a front page story today,

Presumably that would include the Senate Bill 3583, the bill that his McHenry Expo mate and State Senator Pam Althoff introduced that would provide low interest loans to riverfront property owners wanting to repair the sea walls.

Here is the Franks press release:

Springfield, IL – State Representative Jack D. Franks (D-Woodstock) Wednesday released the following statement:

“Illinois continues to face the worst financial crisis in the state’s history. Our budget deficit has reached an unfathomable $13 billion. Yet, we have scarcely uttered the word ‘budget’ since returning to Springfield this year. In effect, we are failing those who elected us. It is time to put an end to the partisan games and stop hesitating at the thought of November’s general election. It is time we demonstrate some leadership from the trenches of state government.

Jack Franks

“I call on each member of the General Assembly to start by withdrawing any bill they have introduced this session that will add to the state’s expenses going forward. This action will not just save the state future monies, it will demonstrate a real willingness to focus on the most basic problem in our state…our fiscal crisis.

“From now until we adjourn in May, or sooner depending on our progress, I propose we focus solely on how to fix the budget.

“Rather than continue delaying this inevitable battle, we should save taxpayers the added expense and frustration of an overtime session and start working on it now. We need fundamental change to business as usual in Springfield and the only way for change to occur is to actively work toward it.

“Tough budget talks were delayed in the recent past because of the February primary.

“Elected members remain afraid to take a difficult stand on the budget because of November’s general election. The people of Illinois want action – brave, precedent-shattering results for the good of our state. Leadership demands this action and the criticism that may come will be nothing like the criticism we will receive by inaction.

“Governor Pat Quinn has returned to his campaign for an income tax increase to help close the budget deficit.

“To that I say, ‘Governor, why not first try a more novel idea than placing the burden on those you have been elected to serve.

“When we produce the FY2011 budget, require it to be zero-based. Force your offices and agencies to justify every line item expense. Allow the budget to be examined with a fine-tooth comb. Exhaust every other potential option to help solve this financial crisis. Only then we can discuss boosting revenue.’”

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When I first noticed the Althoff bill, I figured it was something she would point to as having brought back to McHenry County, should she decide to vote for an income tax increase.

Mike Tryon

It was “just” a surplus property issue.

Should it take approval of the Illinois General Assembly to dispose of surplus property worth more than $1 million?

But House Bill 4744 was aimed by Crystal Lake State Representative Mike Tryon directly at the Democratic (and some regional Republican) Party politicians promoting turning maximum security Thomson Correctional Center into terrorist central.

How creative!

President Barack Obama, Governor Pat Quinn and U.S. Senator Dick Durbin think it is such a wonderful idea.

But, led by not-yet-nominated-for-U.S.-Senate Congressman Mark Kirk, Republicans, including Congressman Don Manzullo, in whose district the prison is located, attacked the idea, not once, but repeatedly. All over TV.

Liberals pooh-poohed the unreasonable fear of opponents. When Manzullo pointed out that the terrorists would likely be tried in Rockford, the Obama Administration rushed in with the alternative that the courtroom would be behind the prison’s walls.

Then the would-be Christmas airplane bomber turned out to be from Yemen, the same country as most of the Guantanamo terrorists President Obama wants to transfer to Northwestern Illinois.

Byron nuclear power plants as seen from Interstate 39, upwind from McHenry County.

That got me thinking about

those Byron nuclear power plants we see on our annual pilgrimage to the Springfield Old Capitol Art Fair.

A terrorist act there releasing radiation would float right over McHenry County.

Enter Tryon with his bill.

It got out of committee, indicating House Speaker Mike Madigan’s approval.

And, it passed overwhelmingly. 81 of 116 voting “Yes.”

Until the blood-letting is over, Keely Cat has decided to hide his head and sleep.

Eventually, the Democrats lust for patronage and the other benefits of controlling state government will result in slotting State Comptroller Dan Hynes in Scott Lee Cohen’s place as the running mate for Pat Quinn and the media can concentrate on how “unqualified” the Republican’s Lieutenant Governor candidate Jason Plummer is.

And, if you don’t believe they will, read this paragraph from Friday’s column by the Tribune’s Eric Zorn:

“Democratic and Republican primary voters Tuesday nominated inexperienced, unknown rich guys to be the running mates for their gubernatorial candidates, touching off memories of 1986, when another unknown slipped his way onto a major-party ticket.

This time, lumber company heir Jason Plummer, 27, spent more than $1.3 million in family money to get 34 percent of the GOP primary vote, enough to prevail in a six-candidate field.

“…the outrage was obvious: Neither man is remotely qualified to be one heartbeat or one federal indictment away from becoming governor of Illinois.”

With Democratic Party State Representative Jack Franks’s support, State Comptroller is edging out Governor Pat Quinn in McHenry County.

Caution is urged in viewing these numbers because the early and absentee votes have not yet been added.

Mike Tryon

Happened upon the endorsement of State Senator Kirk Dillard by Crystal Lake’s State Rep. Mike Tryon.

If anything has been made of it, except listing it on Dillard’s web site in a press release announcing that the Sangamon County Republican Party (can’t get much more Establishment than that) was endorsing Kirk, I’ve missed it.

Also listed there is Family PAC right next to the Illinois Education Association. That’s the first time I’ve seen those ideological opponents on the same page.

Found Irene Napier of McHenry County Right to Life, as well. She attended State Senator Pam Althoff’s breakfast at 1776 for Dillard.

McHenry County Treasurer Bill LeFew has signed up, too.

Jack Franks

And, on Pete Gonigam’s First Electric Newspaper, I discovered that Democratic Party State Rep. Jack Franks supports State Comptroller Dan Hynes for governor.

No big surprise there.

Franks was willing to hold hearings on Governor Pat Quinn’s “Catch and Release” prisoner program.

Some call it by the “Revolving Door.”