Corruption – New York vs. Illinois
By W. Guy Finley | March 11, 2008
New York is an awful long way away for most of us to think about but I thought I would include this eloquently written commentary from the Wall Street Journal as New York becomes the latest proud owner of a scandalous governor (we’re on our second one here in Illinois):
Spitzers Rise and Fall – WSJ.com
The big difference between New York and Illinois? Well, apparently in New York they actually go after you when you’re still in office! Here in Illinois we’re far too civilized for that, when the indictments come down and you’re still in office you get to be called “Public Official A” until the end of your term when they really come after you. In this case Spitzer is “Client 9″ but that case shows no signs of slowing down just because Spitzer is in office. Here in Illinois he probably wouldn’t just stay in office, he would probably be re-elected!
No, the differences in the situations are clear to see: when you’re dealing with sex you can expect quick and swift retribution but it’s no big deal in Illinois if one of your key fund raisers is on trial for forcing kickbacks and promising appointments in return for contributions. In fact, you can even run for President of the United States and few will seem to notice that an indicted land developer was one of your key contributors, whom you never did any favors for, who you went to to buy your mansion’s backyard which was on an adjoining lot, who just so happened to get a $3.5 mil loan from a convicted Iraqi businessman with ties to Saddam Hussein three weeks before the deal was closed. Not convinced Rezko bought Obama’s backyard? Take a look at the overhead footage in the attached MSNBC report.
No, this is politics Chicago style where all of this apparently is quite normal. In fact, some defenders are now saying that you can’t expect to get a candidate out of Illinois who isn’t a little dirty, a “regular Cook County Democrat.”
You can almost see Rezko, a veteran fundraiser for Harold Washington, Blagojevich and others, sitting down with Obama in a scene almost straight out of The Untouchables filling Obama in on how you do politics “the Chicago way”.
So while the Rezko trial marches on, Rod Blagojevich continues to comfortably serve as governor from his Chicago home and Barack Obama is crossing the country with his message of change and hope an overzealous district attorney turned governor in New York is going to be forced to step aside in a prostitution scandal. It all makes you really wonder where our priorities are and who the true prostitutes are.
Topics: Illinois, National, News, State Issues | No Comments »
And still they spend…
By Charles | March 11, 2008
The CTA wants more money from the Chicago/Cook County/Illinois taxpayer, and they want it NOW! Even though the CTA’s own numbers show an amazing windfall throughout the past few years, they can’t seem to controll themselves when it comes to putting thier greasy fat fingers in our pockets. And the worst part is that the Democrats are letting them do it!
The CTA claims that they have a $158 million shortfall in their budget and they want us to pick up that tab as well. The question must be asked “who is running this show?” How can the CTA leaderhip be this inept?
In 2005, the cost of a trip on the CTA was $1.75. Today, it cost the average rider $2.75 to catch a train or a bus. Having provided almost 500 million rides last year (see below) that equals approximately 41.6 million rides a month, or 114.5 million dollars a month from hard working people living in and around Chicago. Yet, still they want more.
The elected Republican leadership in Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois General Assemblies need to stand up to this graft. How much more (on top of the current 10.5% sales tax in Chicago) do we have to put up with? Who will fight for the people of Illinois? If the CTA can’t survive with an increasing ridership year over year for the past 9 out of 10 years as well as a 60% fare increase in 3 years (providing it with $114.5 Million a month) and maintain its ability to keep the services running, perhaps the leadership needs to be replaced.
CTA must cut $200 million from new
train, bus budget
- By Jon Hilkevitch | Tribune reporter
- March 6, 2008
The Chicago Transit Authority is being forced to cut $200 million from its already underfunded budget for new trains and buses, rail station improvements and other key projects because state leaders have failed to come up with a new capital-improvement program, officials said Wednesday.The CTA board will be asked to approve the cutbacks — $40 million a year in lost state funding through 2012 — at its meeting next week.
CTA Has Now Achieved Ridership Increases in Nine of the Past 10 Years
The CTA today announced that 2007 combined bus and rail ridership increased by 4.7 million rides, a gain of 1 percent over 2006 ridership, for a total of 499.5 million rides. It is the highest ridership level since 1992. CTA has gained 60 million annual rides since the lowest year of 1997.Weekend ridership showed the strongest rate of growth throughout the year. Saturday ridership in 2007 increased by 1.1 percent over last year and Sunday/Holiday ridership increased by 1.9 percent.The CTA’s bus system posted particularly strong gains. The bus system provided 309.3 million rides, an increase of 10.8 million rides over 2006, or a gain of 3.6 percent. Throughout the year, bus boardings surpassed levels not seen since1994.
Topics: Illinois, Local Issues | No Comments »
Link re-elected as county Dem chair :: News Sun :: News
By W. Guy Finley | March 6, 2008
Link re-elected as county Dem chair :: News Sun :: News
Well it’s getting dang hard for Republicans to get any love, even in their once mighty bastion of Lake County. In today’s Daily Herald they did manage to rate a story from their meeting at Midlane Country Club but that article didn’t make the March 6 Daily Herald Lake County webpage. So a mixed rating for the Daily Herald on Lake County Republican Federation love — decent print article of equal size to the same article on the Dems but MIA on the webpage.
Next we have the News-Sun (which can’t seem to make up their mind if they’re using the hyphen or not) which gave similar treatment on their March 6 main page. No mention of the GOP meeting there but the article linked above is prominently featured. Then you get to the article linked above (which I have tried to retain for posterity but due to the way the News-Sun encodes their page it won’t let me) you have a nice long article on the Lake County Dem “convention” complete with photos and they manage to squeeze in a little box in the corner to mention the Republicans. How nice of them, they managed to find some room.
Is this more evidence of the Obama tsunami in Illinois? Blue fever running wild even in the once juicy red fields of Lake County? There definitely seems to be a lack of enthusiasm coming from Republicans lately. It’s up to us if we’re going to just lay there and take it or try to do something about it.
People like to blame the media for a lot of things and sometimes they’re right. A lot of times though it’s failure on the part of Republicans to court the media and give them something to write about. Terry Link being re-elected for the umpteenth time as Lake County Dem Chair is not news but they managed to get the coverage. Republicans need to do likewise especially when we have the edge — Republicans hold the vast majority of seats on the Lake County Board as well as the elected officials. We can’t rest on those laurels though, it is clear the Dems are making inroads in Lake County, it’s up to us to block their progress.
Topics: Illinois, Local Issues, News | No Comments »
Cook tax increase has county border towns steaming — chicagotribune.com
By W. Guy Finley | March 5, 2008
Cook tax increase has county border towns steaming — chicagotribune.com
Cook County is the cradle of the Democratic tax and spend philosophies in Illinois. With a new county sales tax and a statewide transportation sales tax the new sales tax rate in Cook County will sky to over 10%. Moves like this simply kill business and nobody knows that more than those in border municipalities.
In towns like Barrington and Palatine residents will be able to make a short drive to Lake or McHenry County to take advantage of much lower tax rates. Think this threat of driving business out of the area is not real? Go to grocery stores on the Wisconsin border like Woodman’s and check out all the Illinois license plates there. Lower Wisconsin taxes are driving Illinois consumers to Wisconsin business day after day and the Illinois tax loss goes along with it.
Until the voters of Cook County wake up and realize what their leadership is leading them to businesses will continue to flee or, more precisely, be driven out of Cook County. For voters in Illinois the issues are the same, businesses continue to relocate to Wisconsin to take advantage of reduced taxes and while it is clear more people live in Wisconsin and commute to Illinois to work, if these taxes continue it might not be long until that tide shifts as well.
Topics: Illinois, Local Issues | No Comments »
Welcome!
By W. Guy Finley | March 4, 2008
I’m working on getting the RLC-IL site up and going. Heavy construction so watch your head!
Topics: Site | No Comments »