THE ILLINOIZE: Holiday Tuesday Free For All...Transit funding...Madigan maneuvers...Stateville tranfers
September 3, 2024
Good morning, Illinois.
We hope you had a labor-free Labor Day.
We had lots of comments last week when we brought up the contest/decision/opportunity to choose a new state flag. I, frankly, think its a little dumb, so I asked former Rep. Tim Butler, who sits on the new flag commission to talk about it. We chatted Friday on WMAY.
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Governor Pritzker is at an electric vehicle rebate event in suburban Skokie this morning.
Let’s get to it.
YOUR MONDAY TUESDAY FREE FOR ALL
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What Senate leaders learned on summer road trip, as transit mega merger looms (Daily Herald)
Public transit in Chicago and the suburbs is at a crossroads.
Metra, Pace and the CTA face a $730 million shortfall in 2026, sparked by a COVID-19 ridership drop.
One proposed legislative solution is merging the three into a mega-agency — but that’s opposed by the agencies and Collar Counties.
In pursuit of consensus, the Illinois Senate Transportation Committee has gone on a summer road trip to get riders’ opinions on the future of transit.
“Right now, our transit system reflects an old design,” DuPage County Board Chair Deb Conroy testified in Naperville. “One that saw commuting as merely bedroom communities serving downtown workplaces.”
“All suburban residents deserve the same level and access to and from Naperville to Rosemont or from Oak Park to the Morton Arboretum in Lisle.”
This spring, Transportation Committee Chairman Ram Villivalam and others sponsored a bill seeking to abolish Metra, Pace, CTA and RTA boards and replace them with a Metropolitan Mobility Authority.
The intent is to create efficiencies and improve service with products such as a universal fare, but Collar County leaders fear a power grab.
There are 47 members on the four transit boards now. The MMA would have 10 directors picked by Chicago and Cook County, five by the Collar Counties and three by the governor. A simple majority of 10 could pass resolutions.
The RTA, which oversees Metra, Pace and the CTA, has 16 members. A supermajority is needed to pass items like budgets.
“Any system of governance that gives outside influence to one region will exacerbate the problems our transit system faces today,” Conroy said.
Under the proposal, McHenry County’s representation would shrink from three board members to one, Buehler said Wednesday.
“McHenry County has so few voices to advocate for us, the loss of any voice … is devastating.”
Madigan arguments turn to professor's testimony with trial fast approaching (Chicago Sun-Times)
Federal prosecutors last year secured bribery convictions for four political insiders with ties to Michael J. Madigan without the help of a prominent political science professor, despite references in secret recordings to Chicago’s “old-fashioned patronage system.”
Now, Madigan’s own trial is approaching in five weeks. This time, the feds hope they’ll be allowed to call that professor to the stand to explain the intricacies of local politics to jurors. But a defense attorney from last year’s case argued Thursday they were actually in the “unusual” position of knowing the professor’s testimony isn’t needed — all thanks to his client’s conviction.
“It was proven that this expert was unnecessary,” Patrick Cotter told U.S. District Judge John Blakey.
Testimony and arguments in Blakey’s 12th-floor courtroom — with former Illinois House Speaker Madigan sitting quietly in one corner — offered a taste Thursday of what’s to come as a series of public corruption trials resume this fall. The Southwest Side Democrat had been set to go to trial last spring, but a review of a key bribery law by the U.S. Supreme Court prompted a six-month delay.
The trial is now set for Oct. 8, and there’s much work to do.
Blakey must decide how the ruling by the high court will affect Madigan’s case. It found that the bribery law does not also criminalize after-the-fact rewards known as “gratuities.”
Set for trial alongside Madigan is his longtime confidant, Michael McClain. Represented by Cotter, McClain was convicted in May 2023 along with three other former ComEd executives and lobbyists for conspiring to bribe Madigan. Cotter recently argued Madigan and McClain should be tried separately. So Blakey must resolve that request, as well.
Related: Potential testimony in Madigan case is previewed as attorneys start wrangling over what a jury might hear (Chicago Tribune)
Stateville begins transferring out prisoners amid concerns over conditions (Chicago Tribune)
Dozens of men have begun to be transferred out of Stateville Correctional Center just north of Joliet as debates continue over the condition of the century-old prison and Gov. JB Pritzker’s plans to rebuild it in the coming years.
So far, 75 people in custody have been transferred out of Stateville, Illinois Department of Corrections spokesperson Naomi Puzzello said Wednesday. Those men went to prisons across the state, according to Anders Lindall, a spokesperson for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, which represents many employees at the maximum-security correctional facility.
The transfers mark a significant step and a slight speed-up in plans regarding Stateville and other Illinois prisons as advocates for those who are incarcerated and employees at prisons have raised a broad range of sometimes differing concerns.
A federal judge earlier this month ordered most Stateville inmates be moved out by Sept. 30 after civil rights lawyers argued the conditions were too hazardous. As of the end of June, IDOC reported Stateville’s total population was 568.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood came about five months after the Pritzker administration said it planned to rebuild Stateville in Crest Hill and Logan Correctional Center in downstate Lincoln as part of a nearly $1 billion project.
Outcry over the welfare of those incarcerated at Stateville and at other Illinois prisons grew louder among advocates this summer after the June death of 51-year-old Michael Broadway, who died in Stateville during a severe heat wave. Advocates put at least part of the blame for Broadway’s death on the heat and squalid conditions inside the prison. Those conditions include poor ventilation, visible mold, rodent infestations and unsanitary drinking water. Broadway’s autopsy report has not been released.
Related: Stateville workers picket as relocation begins (Capitol News Illinois)
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POLITICAL POTPOURRI
Illinois mourns killing of Israeli hostages including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, who had Chicago ties (Chicago Tribune)
Why did groups pay for U.S. lawmakers’ trips abroad? (Daily Herald)
Big money floods Illinois campaigns with few rules and little enforcement (Chicago Tribune)
Abortion access for those traveling to Illinois could be in jeopardy as aid funds run short of money (Chicago Sun-Times)
Report shows Illinois union participation declining despite growth in new petitions (Capitol News Illinois)
AG’s public access unit to check if tollway strayed from Open Meetings Act (Daily Herald)
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson floats a hiring freeze ahead of a $982 million budget gap (WBEZ)
Chicago to spend $63 million less on migrant care in 2024, but budget woes remain (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Jack Conaty, longtime political reporter for Fox-owned Channel 32, dies at 77 (Chicago Tribune)
Editorial: Illinois bans corporal punishment in private schools. About time. (Chicago Tribune)
Editorial: Free speech and election politics: Chilling-sounding 'First Amendment Zones' pose a legitimate, not insurmountable, challenge for Kane County board (Daily Herald)
Editorial: Can private equity help the Chicago Bears finance a new stadium? (Chicago Tribune)
Opinion: Forecast cloudy for Illinois consumers and small businesses under this law (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Krishnamoorthi: Let’s throw the penalty flag at China’s unfair and illegal trade moves (Chicago Tribune)
Opinion: Violence Isn’t a Just a Chicago (or Democratic) Problem (Chicago Magazine)
Opinion: Lawmakers limit homeowner associations’ ability to forbid native plantings (Shaw Media)
Opinion: Authorities 'immune' from results of their bad judgment (Champaign News-Gazette)
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