THE ILLINOIZE: The battle over property rights...Acevedo son guilty in ComEd probe...Meet Sen. Willie Preston
January 31, 2023
Good morning, Illinois.
We’re working on a plan for a livestream and podcast that will air live at noon tomorrow over on our YouTube page. Click here and go hit the subscribe button.
I’ll also be filling in for Jim Leach on WMAY in Springfield Thursday from 4-6pm. We’ll see what kind of trouble we can get into or who we can p*ss off along the way. (Tell me that’s not a tease.) You can always plan to listen online at www.wmay.com.
The House returns at 2pm today. The Senate is out. There’s nothing on the Governor’s public schedule.
We’re still offering a seven day free trial if you want to heck out the content paid subscribers receive. Just click below!
Drop me a note what’s on your mind. You can reach me anytime at patrick@theillinoize.com.
PROPERTY RIGHTS OR STATE STANDARDS?
Outside of the assault weapons ban, there’s little lame duck session action that has landed in our inbox more than HB4412, which sets statewide zoning standards for wind and solar projects around the state.
The bill, which was signed into law by Governor JB Pritzker last Friday, sets maximum distances from residences and other occupied buildings to be set back from wind or solar projects. Previously, county ordinances were a patchwork of regulations, some offering nearly no restrictions on projects and some making the projects nearly impossible to develop.
“[The legislature is] totally kicking downstate counties legs out from underneath them so they can plop in their solar and wind farms anywhere they want,” one upset downstate county board member told us. “It’s just an effort to get to their baloney green energy mandates.”
The Illinois Farm Bureau opposed the legislation, but not for the statewide standards, said IFB Director of State Legislation Kevin Semlow. He says Farm Bureau supports an even playing field, much like for large livestock operation around the state. But, he says, the law undermines drainage districts and codes as well as setbacks and discrepancies in the state pollution control board statute.
“[It] definitely forces counties to modify their zoning ordinances,” Semlow said. “The prevalent feeling [among members] is that landowners have private property rights to develop or not develop land as they see fit.”
Environmental groups supported the legislation, claiming they were working to combat efforts in downstate counties to stop the state from meeting clean energy goals in the Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA).
“We’ve seen an uptick in radical misinformation campaigns taking root here in Illinois that aim to obstruct the progress we have made in CEJA by banning local wind and solar clean energy projects,” said Jen Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council said in a release as the bill was being debated.. “Unaddressed, these out-of-state fear-mongers will compromise the state’s ability to meet our climate goals and realize the financial savings, job creation, economic development, and grid reliability secured in CEJA.”
Semlow says the new law impacts wind and solar developers and has little impact on individual landowners.
We’re told some county officials in different parts of the state are considering legal action challenging the constitutionality of the law.
ANOTHER SHOE FALLS IN COMED CASE
Former Rep. Eddie Acevedo’s son, Alex, was found guilty yesterday on tax charges tied to the Commonwealth Edison/Michael Madigan investigation.
More via our friend Jon Seidel of the Chicago Sun-Times:
It took the jury roughly an hour of deliberations to reach its verdict against Alex Acevedo at the end of a trial that lasted three days at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.
His sentencing hearing has been set for July 5.
Alex Acevedo, his brother Michael Acevedo and their father were each charged with cheating on their taxes in separate indictments handed up in February 2021.
Prosecutors alleged during his trial that Alex Acevedo failed to report about $49,000 for 2016 and $16,000 for 2018. They said he thought he could get away with it because the money came from Michael Acevedo’s lobbying business, Apex Strategy LLC.
The feds called that business “a virtual black box” that “concealed from the IRS all of the payments that the company had made” to Alex Acevedo.
Edward Acevedo pleaded guilty in December 2021 to tax evasion, admitting he cheated the federal government out of about $37,000. He was sentenced to six months behind bars and was released last month, records show.
Meanwhile, Michael Acevedo pleaded guilty last month to cheating on his taxes to the tune of an estimated $137,000. His sentencing is set for March 15.
The charges against the Acevedos stemmed from the larger investigation into Madigan and ComEd. In about a month, four people charged as part of that investigation with trying to bribe Madigan are also set to face trial.
P.S. We talked to Jon on the Livestream and podcast last week in part about the Madigan case. You can find that part of the conversation here.
MEET THE FRESHMEN: SEN. WILLIE PRESTON (D-CHICAGO)
We probably won’t be able to get to everyone, but with so many new members this spring, we thought we should take some time to introduce you to some of the new faces in Springfield.
Willie Preston grew up on the streets of Englewood. He lived each day in what he calls “street conflict.”
He credits access to a career in the building trades as a path that took him to “a different way of living.”
Now as a freshman in the Senate, replacing longtime Sen. Jacqueline Collins, Preston says he’s focused on building opportunities to help reduce violence and blight on the south side.
“If we have more [opportunity,] we will see better people produced in the community,” Preston said. “We need to make sure that we build people. You build them up by giving them purpose. Nothing beyond their family and faith gives people purpose more than having a job, having a career that helps define who they are.”
Preston, who turns 38 Wednesday, lives in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood on Chicago’s south side with his wife and six children. His district stretches from the Chicago Skyway to the east to suburban Hickory Hills and Justice to the west.
He ran for the House in 2018, losing a primary challenge to Rep. Mary Flowers (D-Chicago). But when Collins chose not to seek another term in the Senate, Preston wanted his chance to make a difference for struggling communities.
“I wanted to get in and work to stymie some of the violent crime,” he said. “We want to create opportunities in communities where a lot of this violence is occurring. If we create economic opportunity, that will build up a different citizenry and people will have alternatives to a lifestyle that seduces them into a life of crime.”
Preston says he doesn’t believe government can completely solve crime, cultural, or economic issues, but it can play a role in helping raise up neighborhoods impacted by crime and blight.
“I’m not naïve enough to believe that the government has a role to play in every aspect of our life. I’m not a believer that the government is wholly responsible for everything that we do,” he said. “Opportunities [like workforce development] are life changing. Those are the solutions where government can step in and be helpful.”
He cited investments in helping people break into the building trades, small business startup loans, and access to capital for small businesses to help build up their communities instead of tearing them down. He also suggests more financial education in schools.
“A lot of these issues can be met and faced head on, but they have to be addressed with economic policies that will help reduce violent crime,” he said.
JOIN US