THE ILLINOIZE: Thursday Free for All...Just how liberal is our blue state?...Polling shows we may see Mayor Chuy...Bears ask for stadium bailout
December 15, 2022
Good morning, Illinois.
If you missed our conversation with Dan Petrella in our Livestream and podcast yesterday, you can watch it on YouTube here. You can also subscribe to the podcast version on Apple, Google, Spotify, or Amazon.
This morning, Gov. Pritzker cuts the ribbon for the new Vivid Seats headquarters in the old Marshall Field building downtown. He’ll join the Illinois AFL-CIO & Chicago Federation of Labor for their Workers’ Rights Amendment victory celebration and Holiday Luncheon in the Prairie Shores neighborhood on the near south side. It doesn’t appear as if he’ll be taking any questions from media.
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How liberal is Illinois' legislature? A conservative group weighs in (Bloomington Pantagraph)
Illinois Democrats have controlled the state House for all but two years since 1983. They have been in charge of the state Senate since 2003. They have held the Governor’s Mansion for all but four of the past 20 years.
How has this hold over state government translated into liberal policy wins? A lot, but perhaps not as much as the conventional wisdom would suggest, according to a study released recently from a conservative think tank.
The Center for Legislative Accountability, the research arm of the American Conservative Union, earlier this month analyzed more than 265,000 individual votes cast by 7,400 state lawmakers on more than 3,500 different bills.
It found that Illinois ranked as the 36th-most conservative state legislature, or the 15th-most liberal if approaching from the other direction. In 2021, state lawmakers voted the conservative position 37% of the time, according to the study.
The Alabama legislature voted the conservative position the most at 74% while Massachusetts voted the least at 15%. The states most similar to Illinois — coming within 2% — were Colorado, Delaware, Nevada, New Mexico and Washington.
Illinois is a blue state. It has supported the Democratic presidential nominee in every election since 1992 and routinely sends Democratic-majority legislative delegations to Springfield and Washington. This was reinforced just last month when the party’s candidates once again swept all statewide offices and expanded their legislative majorities.
However, blue does not always equate to liberal. A more accurate description of Illinois would probably be center-left. That’s just how the cake is baked. In general, there’s liberal Chicago, moderate suburbs and conservative downstate.
This lines up with a poll done by a GOP operative late last month.
Related: State’s 5 public pension funds struggled in fiscal ‘22 (Shaw Media)
Opinion: Surprise revenue growth boosts state budget picture (Champaign News-Gazette)
Chuy Garcia says new poll has him leading race for mayor (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Take it with a grain or four of salt, as would be the case with any poll released by a political campaign. But if a new survey by an ally of mayoral hopeful Jesus "Chuy" Garcia is any indication, the Southwest Side congressman is in good shape in his drive to capture City Hall.
According to the poll by Impact Research, a well-known progressive firm whose clients have included President Joe Biden, Garcia enters the race leading the pack. Specifically, based on the current field, Garcia is said to draw 25% of the vote, trailed by incumbent Lori Lightfoot with 18%, former schools chief Paul Vallas at 14% and businessman Willie Wilson at 10%.
Those results are not surprising. Garcia has big-name recognition after his prior race for mayor and from his years in Congress, and it's no secret that Lightfoot has had her problems. According to the survey, she's actually well underwater, with just 29% of voters approving of her performance as mayor to 69% rating her negatively.
Related: Is Chuy running away with race for Chicago mayor? Local 150 poll shows he is. (Chicago Sun-Times)
Mayoral foes rip Chuy Garcia over crypto ties (Crain’s Chicago Business)
Mayoral hopefuls agree solving crime is the answer — no matter what the question (Chicago Sun-Times)
Democratic socialists see the upcoming City Council elections as a chance to build an influential bloc (Chicago Magazine)
Billionaire Ken Griffin sues IRS over leaked tax records (Chicago Tribune)
Multibillionaire Ken Griffin filed a lawsuit against the IRS Tuesday alleging the agency violated his right to privacy after investigative journalism outlet ProPublica reported in April on the tax records of the Republican megadonor and former Chicagoan.
Griffin’s income and taxes were reported by ProPublica alongside similar information for hundreds of America’s wealthiest people. The outlet has said it does not know who shared the tax information with them and did not solicit the documents it received.
Griffin, who founded the hedge fund Citadel, demanded a jury trial in his lawsuit. He claimed the tax agency is responsible for the “unlawful disclosure” of his tax returns because of its “willful and intentional failure” to set up safeguards to its records system, court records filed Tuesday in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida show.
“The IRS is and has for some time been well aware of these issues,” Griffin’s court filing said. “Despite these warnings, however, the IRS continues to willfully and intentionally fail to establish adequate safeguards to protect Mr. Griffin and other taxpayers’ confidential tax return information.”
No word on if Griffin tried to write off blowing $50 million on the disastrous Richard Irvin gubernatorial campaign.
Bears float stadium-development subsidy plan for Arlington Heights (Crain’s Chicago Business)
The Chicago Bears are floating in Springfield the possibility of creating new form of tax subsidy for their pending redevelopment of Arlington Park, one which would give them financial help but not penalize local school districts as harshly as a conventional tax-increment financing district.
Under the plan, which has not yet been submitted in writing but has been raised with key legislative players, the Bears would be able to utilize something known as payment in lieu of taxes, or PILT.
The Bears' pitch is in the preliminary stage and is receiving a mixed reception from Springfield officials. But because PILT payments can be negotiated rather than being set at a predetermined rate, and because they can be shared with schools rather than stay with municipalities, they offer more flexibility than a conventional TIF district.
In a statement, the Bears confirm that they continue to explore options to fund the Arlington project.
"As we have mentioned publicly, in order for this project to move forward, we will need to have property tax certainty and infrastructure support," Scott Hagel, vice president of marketing and communications for the Bears, said in an email. "We continue to do our due diligence on how that can be accomplished but have made no asks at this point."
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I am amazed that the government would even consider to subsidize a multi-billion enterprise. The average ticket exceeds $300...for a family of 4 that's $1,200 to watch a 3-hour football game. The NFL gives a new dimension to the word avarice.