THE ILLINOIZE: DCEO blasted over failures handing out pandemic loans...Pritzker defends legislative pay raises...Why we're suing Senate President Don Harmon
June 6, 2023
Good morning, subscribers.
It was 79 years ago this morning some 7,000 ships dropped 133,000 troops from the United States and the British commonwealth on the shores of northern France. If you’ve watched our video podcast (subscribe to our YouTube channel, by the way), you may have seen I keep my grandparents’ wedding photo on my desk.
They were married at my grandma’s country church in Kankakee County in early December, 1943, while my grandfather was on leave from the war. Thankfully, with his farm kid background, he was useful as a mechanic and not in infantry, so he followed D-Day +20.
He didn’t really talk a lot about the worst things he saw in the war, but one time I asked him what the beaches looked like after the initial fighting was over. He paused, and in his slow, deliberate cadence with a slight hint of German accent said “it was hell on earth.”
That’s three weeks after the invasion itself.
God bless those heroes and their memories.
Governor Pritzker will continue selling his FY24 budget successes in Freeport at 10a.m. and Moline at 1:30p.m.
Because today’s newsletter includes some non-political reporting “news,” we’ve opened up the newsletter to our whole list. Just know our Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday newsletters are now typically reserved for paid subscribers.
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As always, drop me a note at patrick@theillinoize.com with any questions, complaints, comments, or ideas.
One other note: services for Illinois Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Todd Maisch, who died last week, have been announced. A visitation will be held Thursday from 4:00 until 7:00 p.m. at Bisch Funeral Home West, 2931 South Koke Mill Road, Springfield. At 7:00 p.m. family and friends will share memories and tributes. Our hearts continue to go out to Kim and their boys.
Let’s get to it.
DCEO BLASTED FOR IMPROPERLY IMPLEMENTING BUSINESS GRANTS
A new report from the Illinois Auditor General shows Governor JB Pritzker’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) failed in oversight of hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic grants for small businesses.
The report, issued by Auditor General Frank Mautino, says DCEO didn’t keep track of $580 million in federal pandemic dollars released to businesses around the state.
“DCEO could not provide documentation to show how or why it selected organizations to administer Round 1 of the BIG program,” the report states. “One of the grant administrators, as well as a DCEO official, appears to have not complied with conflict of interest policies at DCEO.”
The report showed DCEO didn’t verify if businesses complied with the law and other necessary certifications and provided grants to over 600 businesses that didn’t qualify for the funding.
The report also founded the state started giving out money before it had rules in place to do so, and gave some businesses preferential treatment in the rewarding of grants.
The report also showed DCEO lacked oversight.
“DCEO oversight of the award selection process for the small business component of BIG was insufficient,” the report reads. “Our testing of the selection process found significant deficiencies in both rounds.”
Furthermore, the state did not seek to get money back when it was determined businesses had lied or didn’t qualify for funding.
We asked a former Republican legislator about the report Monday night and they criticized the Pritzker administration.
“Everyone was flying by the seat of their pants in the early days of the pandemic, but most of these grants went out in 2021, a year into the pandemic,” the former legislator said. “This is another failure of the Pritzker administration and shows just how unprepared and unqualified they were trying to navigate the pandemic.”
A DCEO spokesperson provided a statement to The Illinoize last night.
“In mid-2020 during the height of the pandemic, DCEO delivered grants to thousands of businesses in dire need of support – to offset the impact of closures, and to help them survive the global economic upheaval occurring at the time. With many small businesses on the brink of financial collapse, DCEO’s highest priority was to support Illinois’ businesses as efficiently as possible. A traditional grant program can take more than a year from conception to grants going out the door. BIG was launched 3 weeks after legislation became law and thousands of small businesses and jobs were saved as a result. After developing a first-of-its kind program during an unprecedented global economic crisis, the agency learned valuable insights and has since vastly improved processes through additional large-scale funding programs for Illinois businesses through its B2B program.”
PRITZKER DEFENDS LEGISLATIVE PAY RAISES
Governor JB Pritzker appeared to defend legislative and executive official Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) pay raises included in the state budget, though misrepresented previous changes to politician paychecks.
Speaking at John Wood Community College in Quincy Monday, Pritzker said the raises passed by the legislature in January, combined with COLA’s included in the new budget, raising lawmaker base pay to around $91,000, aren’t as dramatic as they may seem.
“You can imagine it seems like an enormous bump to have one year where you’re going up 17% as happened, I think, last year,” Pritzker said. “It was, in part, because pay had been, literally, frozen. And, that’s while we were raising the minimum wage for people in Illinois.”
Even at the $71,000 base pay legislators were at for multiple years, that equates to about $40 per hour for a full time job. Legislator jobs are not considered full time.
“For years, and particularly under my predecessor, members of the General Assembly weren’t getting paid at all,” Pritzker said. “Because no budget for a couple of years, right?”
Fact check: for the most part, lawmakers were getting paychecks. They were placed, essentially, at the “back of the line,” and had delays, but it’s not like politicians went two years without paychecks.
“Then, their pay had been frozen,” Pritzker said. “I think pay was frozen for almost ten years in Illinois for General Assembly members.”
Fact check: for years, legislators voted to suspend their cost of living increases (COLA’s), which stagnated the number. They froze their own pay. It was included in a lawsuit Democrat Comptroller Susana Mendoza fought after two former lawmakers who wanted back pay even though they voted to suspend their COLA’s.
Pritzker did not comment on claims from Republicans the pay raises were unconstitutional.
“My own view is the General Assembly has to make decisions about this themselves,” Pritzker said. “I look at the entire budget. There are things in the budget I don’t love and things in the budget I proposed and think are the right thing to do. You look at it as a totality and make a decision as Governor whether to sign it.”
Pritzker did, of course, confirm he will sign the new budget, which he said will happen “soon.”
WHY WE’RE SUING SENATE PRESIDENT DON HARMON
There’s nothing I take more seriously than the rights protected under the First Amendment. Without the first, the others after it don’t matter.
Before launching this newsletter in the fall of 2020, I had cut my teeth as a reporter in this state. From 2005-2011, I reported on politics, corruption at the University of Illinois, and broke piles of stories. In 2011, I moved into the political realm with a goal of trying to help good people get elected to make things better. I worked on campaigns in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and the 2020 primary. Most of those campaigns were for Republicans, some were for independents, and, yes, some were for Democrats.
When I stepped away from the political world and launched the newsletter in 2020, I pledged to treat both sides fairly and use my unique perspective, both in journalism, on state staff, and in politics, to help better inform the public about what is happening in Illinois politics and government.
Having access to the Senate floor isn’t usually a huge deal. But, we aren’t in normal times. The issue of access to the chamber is important in the Senate because the chamber in the Capitol building, with its large public gallery, is closed to the public during renovation. They’re currently working in a makeshift chamber across the street at the Howlett Building.
Not having eyes on lawmakers is detrimental to the public good. And, as newsrooms cut staff and provide less and less coverage of state government and the legislative process, the public relies on smaller, independent outlets like ours to carry the load.
When the new General Assembly took office in early 2021, I was offered the opportunity to apply for Senate credentials by Senate President Don Harmon’s staff. I was warned first time applicants take some time (why was never made clear).
Our request was not acted on during the entire 2021 session or the entire 2022 session. In that time, Senate President Harmon’s spokesman stopped responding to all my calls and inquiries, not only on credentialing, but on any topic. We were removed from the media distribution list of every Senate Democrat. Senate Democratic staffers canceled their subscriptions. In essence, they shut us out. We were even removed from the list of media outlets invited to apply for credentials in January of this year.
We have sued President Harmon, his top two communications advisors, John Patterson and Liz Mitchell, as well as the Senate Parliamentarian (who happens to be Harmon’s top lawyer), Giovanni Randazzo, for violating the First Amendment by selectively denying and punishing the rights of a media outlet. The suit is pending in federal district court in Springfield. Harmon’s high-priced, politically connected lawyers are delaying and obfuscating rather than seeking a fair resolution to this case.
I’m not here to make friends and I will not stand for political appointees to run roughshod over the constitution in a petty, desperate attempt to silence anyone who may be critical of their boss. Our track record has been clear since we launched this newsletter on September 1, 2020: everyone is fair game. We have been critical of Republicans, Democrats, candidates, and officeholders.
There’s no excuse to shut the media out. None. And we’ll fight to the end.
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