Author: Newsdesk

Posted by John Byrne at 5:52 p.m.

Mayor Richard Daley is upping the ante as he bets against his Philadelphia counterpart on the outcome of the Stanley Cup finals.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, however, is not. Win or lose, Nutter has pledged to volunteer in a community garden within his office of sustainability. Cheesesteaks, Philly’s signature foodstuff, are not on the line.

Daley likes to be known as a "green mayor" too, but he’s setting that aside and bringing it in his finals bet. At a United Center news conference, Daley announced he’s putting up even more Chicago
products than he did during the conference finals against San Jose.

Surrounded by piles of sausages, beer, pizza, candy and other Chicago delicacies during a news conference at the United Center to announce the bet, Daley said the Hawks have increasingly taken on the character of the city.

 

"That’s our motto in Chicago: ‘I will.’ We never, ever give up," Daley said as representatives of the companies donating to the wager stood with him. "And I think that’s what the excitement is all about. It’s all about where they come from, how they accomplish it, such a young team, a mature team, and nothing is ever taken for granted. And what we have behind us here is a group of young entrepreneurs and all types of businesses that are proud to be supporting the Chicago Blackhawks."

 

"It isn’t the big shots or anything, this is all the working metropolitan area of Chicago, and across the country," Daley said. "They look at this team as ‘Hey, this is our team. This is a working team.’"

Among Chicago’s offerings should the Blackhawks lose to the Flyers:

*Three dozen Abundance Bakery red velvet cupcakes



*100 Al’s Beef italian beef sandwiches



*Six boxes of Allen Brothers USDA prime long bone ribeye steaks



*Billy Goat Tavern three dozen double cheeseburgers



*Bobak’s Sausage Co.: 100 Italian sausages and 100 gourmet chicken burgers



*Vienna Beef: 1961 Maxwell Street Polish Sausages and 2010 Chicago style hot dogs



*Terry’s Toffee: 30 pounds of toffee



*The Lyric Opera of Chicago: two tickets to Verdi’s "A Masked Ball," two lyric fleece pullovers and baseball hats



*Chicago Public Library: books by seven Chicago authors, including "The Adventures of Augie March" by Nobel Prize winning author Saul Bellow.

And that’s only a partial list.

Posted by Ray Long at 4:45 p.m.

Gov. Pat Quinn accepted $75,000 in campaign donation last month from the Teamsters union that would have benefited from changes he proposed when he vetoed legislation to overhaul the McCormick Place convention center.

The Quinn campaign confirmed the Teamsters gave two donations-—one for $25,000 and one for $50,000—-to the Quinn campaign on April 23. That was two weeks before the House and Senate passed legislation to re-organize the operations of the convention venue, following months of arduous negotiations.



But Quinn spokeswoman Mica Matsoff declared the timing of the contributions played no role in Quinn’s amendatory veto Wednesday, saying the “assertion is completely offensive.”

“Pat Quinn has spent 35 years as a reformer and fighting against political game playing,” Matsoff said.



Quinn included a change that would have helped the Teamsters broaden its jurisdiction at McPier, the authority that oversees McCormick Place and Navy Pier.



Both the House and Senate rejected Quinn’s changes, overriding him with bipartisan votes at the Capitol today. The recent donations were reported online today by Crain’s Chicago Business.



Matsoff said the Teamsters were the first to endorse Quinn and that the union has given donations to him on a cycle of about every three months since Labor Day.



“This is not a secret,” Matsoff said. “Everyone knows the unions support the governor.”



Quinn has previously reported receiving more than $127,000 from various Teamsters locals since 1994, state records show, with $100,000 of the total coming since he embarked on his election campaign last September.



Quinn received two $50,000 checks from the Teamsters Volunteers in Politics, the political action committee of Teamsters Joint Council 25, which represents 22 union locals.

Posted by Tribune staff at 1:51 p.m.

The Illinois Senate today overwhelmingly booted
aside the changes Gov.
Pat Quinn wanted in legislation to overhaul McPier, with Republicans
charging the governor tried to alter the bill to gain political support
in the November election.





The House quickly joined the Senate today in voting overwhelmingly to
reject Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed changes to legislation aimed at
overhauling McPier, putting a law in place aimed at luring back
convention business fleeing Chicago because of high costs.



The
House voted 93-19 to override the governor’s proposed alterations that
came in an amendatory veto as he sought to retain some power that the
legislature stripped away. The Senate acted earlier Thursday, voting
51-2, with one lawmaker casting a present vote. The House then adjourned
at 12:24 p.m. as the Senate wrestled over how to get support for a key
piece of the state budget package.

Senators voted 51-2, with one
voting present, to override Quinn’s changes, which included a move to
ensure he would have the ability to name an interim trustee who would be
put in charge of righting the ship at McPier, where conventions were
fleeing because of high costs. Quinn’s amendatory veto attempted to
remove James Reilly, a former McPier chief, as the designated man in
charge during the interim period.

Read more from Tribune Springfield correspondent Ray Long and business writer Kathy Bergen by clicking here.

Posted by John Byrne at 1:05 p.m.



Mayor Richard Daley and Police Supt. Jody Weis today said the city will work to make sure the beaches are safe this summer, following 22 arrests of young people who were fighting and causing other disturbances this week around North Avenue Beach.

 

"They text people, where people are going in congregation," Daley said. "So you make a number of arrests, a number of arrests were both city and suburban. We had a lot of suburban people arrested."

 

"We know there’s texting going on, something going on in the suburban area with a lot of young adults, we know that," Daley said. Suburban youths are apparently sending each other texts to meet up and drink on Chicago beaches, he said.

 

Weis said that of the 22 people arrested Monday and Tuesday on the beach, 14 were suburbanites.

 

Police are looking into installing cameras along the beach to aid with surveillance, according to Weis, who said it’s unfair to draw conclusions about the safety of the beaches based on a bunch of arrests in a couple days.

 

"We take a short period of time, and all of a sudden ‘Well, now everything is really bad,’" Weis said. "Just give us credit when we look at the whole summer and we get things in place."

 

"Sometimes you mix alcohol with youth and bad results happen," Weis said.

Posted by John Byrne at 1:05 p.m.

Kids caught violating curfew in three high-crime areas of the city will be sent to Chicago Park District buildings instead of police stations this summer under a trial program that Mayor Richard Daley hopes will give police a chance to present youths with alternatives to hanging out on the street.

Parents of children under age 17 found by police outside the home after 11 p.m. on weekends will have to pick them up at the parks, where neighborhood relations officers will be on hand to talk to them about community organizations and park district programs that can help with their kids.

 

"The park district buildings will be an easier place for young people to wait than a police station, and an easier place for us to communicate with the parents who come to pick up their own children," Daley said during a news conference at Ogden Park in the 6500 block of South Racine Avenue, one of the sites curfew violators will be brought.

 

"Common sense says that when you can connect students with mentors, and families with support services and information about positive activities for young people, then those young people have a better chance of avoiding violence or even joining a gang," the mayor said.

The other parks curfew violators will be diverted to on weekends are Harris Park at 6200 S. Drexel Blvd., and Piotrowsky Park, 4247 W. 31st St. The program will begin this weekend and run through October.

The city curfew this summer will remain 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Posted by Ray Long, Monique Garcia and Rick Pearson at 12:52 p.m.; updated at 1:43 p.m.

SPRINGFIELD — Senate President John Cullerton acknowledged that there aren’t enough votes to approve a $4 billion pension borrowing plan today, meaning lawmakers could end up coming back next week to finish the state spending plan.

The Senate needs a three-fifths majority — 36 votes — to approve the borrowing, a key part of the budget. There are 37 Democrats in the Senate, but at least one of them isn’t at the Capitol and a handful of
others are balking at the idea of borrowing more money to keep the
state afloat for another year.

"We don’t have enough votes yet. In the House, some Republicans
supported it. So far, we have no Republican support for the pension
borrowing," Cullerton said. "The problem is that we have a few Democrats who do not want to vote for it and have not voted for it in the past."

Cullerton also acknowledged the Senate may have to come back next week to approve the borrowing, when the absent Democratic senators could be rounded up.

“It requires three-fifths vote. It’s passed the House already," Cullerton said. "So at some point in time, we’ll come back if we can’t pass it today.”

Cullerton’s comments took on an added dimension as Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, adjourned the House at 12:24 p.m., saying he would call lawmakers back to his chamber if needed “in the next few days or over the next several months.” Madigan said the Senate plans to adjourn later today.



Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, said she will be voting against borrowing to make the pension payment because it’s not a comprehensive budget solution.



"I don’t think we can afford to punt it down the road and keeping avoiding the problem even longer," Steans said. Steans said she may be able to support a smaller borrowing effort if it was part of a budget package that also included more spending cuts and a way to raise revenue, such as an income tax increase.



Steans also expressed concerns about a plan to give Gov. Pat Quinn broad budget powers that would allow him to dole out money to state agencies as he sees fit. Historically lawmakers were in charge of setting spending levels for agencies, and Steans said giving Quinn that power two years in a row would erode the "checks and balance" the legislature is supposed to provide.

Sen. Susan Garrett says she is also a no on pension borrowing, saying
it’s part of a "scatter shot" budget plan that does not begin to
address the state’s money woes.





Like Steans, she is open to some borrowing if it also comes with cuts
and a way to raise revenue.

Posted by Rick Pearson at 6:10 p.m.; updated at 6:46 p.m. with Biggins’ response

For 17 years, Elmhurst’s Bob Biggins has been a reliable House Republican vote, but his decision Tuesday to join Democrats in favor of a $4 billion pension borrowing plan is earning the lame-duck lawmaker some blowback from GOP officials.

Biggins, who decided not to seek re-election this fall, was called out by state Republican Chairman Pat Brady today as having “some explaining to do.” Brady contends there are questions of whether Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn made an “offer in exchange” for Biggins’ vote.

Biggins did not attend a closed-door caucus of House Republicans prior to the vote, but instead was in the governor’s office. Biggins, however, has denied being offered anything in return for his vote.



But colleagues, who had locked themselves in opposition to the pension borrowing plan, weren’t happy with Biggins, long a protégé of former House Republican leader Lee Daniels of Elmhurst. State Rep. Jim Sacia, R-Pecatonica, saw Biggins being interviewed by reporters in Springfield following Tuesday’s vote and said loudly and angrily, “Two-faced son of a (expletive).”



Biggins was not the only retiring Republican House member to vote for the plan, which passed with a bare majority of 71 votes. Rep. Bill Black of Danville, a 24-year state lawmaker and member of the House GOP leadership, also voted for the measure.

Brady, the state GOP chairman, said Black was not singled out for criticism because he attended the House GOP caucus while Biggins skipped it for a meeting in Quinn’s office.

“That’s what raises questions,” Brady said. “I think questions have been raised. We just want to know.”

Biggins said Brady should call him for his reasons for voting instead of issuing critical news releases.



"When the GOP has the guts to call me and ask me why I voted for it, I’ll provide them with the answer for this fiscally responsible vote," Biggins said. "The Republican position was fiscally unsound."



Biggins said he was asked to meet with Quinn chief of staff Jerry Stermer during the House GOP caucus and did so.  "Nothing was offered and he didn’t even try to talk me into" voting for it, Biggins said.

Posted by Hal Dardick at 5:23 p.m.

Three suburban community college presidents are asking Cook County commissioners to help fix a job training program that’s been ordered to return $8.4 million since 2003 because of mismanagement.



In response, commissioners called a special meeting next week to discuss the President’s Office of Employment and Training, a troubled program beset by criminal theft charges. It’s another sign County Board members are chafing under President Todd Stroger’s final six months in office.

The presidents of Prairie State College in Chicago Heights, Triton College in River Grove and South Suburban College in South Holland recently wrote letters complaining about the program.

“I must express my shock at the quality of management of this agency and total frustration over the significant loss of productive assistance to a population that now more than ever needs help,” Eric Radtke, president of Prairie State, wrote in a May 5 letter.



“In my conversations with college presidents across the state, I hear none of the problems we face here in Cook County and, to the contrary, numerous cases of positive and productive working relationships,” he added.



Commissioner Peter Silvestri, R-Elmwood Park, was one board member who called for next Wednesday’s meeting to look at the issue. The letters “all reflect problems in the program,” Silvestri added, laying the blame at the feet of the Stroger administration for its alleged failure to follow federal employment training guidelines.



“I would rather see that money used to train people for new jobs,” Silvestri said.



Stroger, however, sent a letter blaming the state for the program’s problems. In his letter to Warren Ribley, director of the state’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Stroger said the state’s federal grant administration “precludes successful delivery of service” through the job training program.



In a separate letter to Gov. Pat Quinn, Stroger proposed that the suburban job training programs be placed under his leadership, then evaluated by an outside expert who would help craft a merger under his successor. Stroger lost the primary election, meaning a new county board president will take over in December.



The state wants someone else to take over the job training program in the south and west suburbs and work toward suburban consolidation, with the goal of turning over the entire program to the county within two years. In 2004, the state took over the employment training program in the north suburbs, leaving the south and west suburbs under county control.



Last year, the state cut off the program’s access to $2.35 million and demanded the return of another $1.8 million. Officials accused program administrators of letting ineligible youth aged 14 to 24 in a jobs program, failing to provide a “meaningful work experience” and ensuring the youth got paid.



Also last year, Shirley Glover, who once oversaw the program, pleaded guilty to stealing more than $100,000 from the agency. She was sentenced to four years in prison.



In January 2008, authorities also had charged three county officials and five others with stealing $1.6 million from the program.



Commissioners’ willingness to make this debate public underscores their restiveness under Stroger, who placed last in February’s four-way Democratic primary. They recently voted to limit his spending authority.

Posted by David Kidwell and Ray Long at 3:23 p.m.; updated at 3:53 p.m.



A controversial video poker bill state gambling regulators fear will allow the operators of illegal machines to stay in business throughout the state was approved 81-26 Wednesday in the Illinois House.

The measure, which expands on the General Assembly’s legalization of video gambling in bars and restaurants last year, now goes to Gov. Pat Quinn for final approval.

The legislation seeks to define the Illinois Gaming Board’s power to deny licenses. Gaming board Chairman Aaron Jaffe says the legislation would require a felony conviction on gambling charges before regulators could deny a license to operate video gambling machines in
Illinois. He criticized the measure as a “disaster” for gambling enforcement in Illinois.

But supporters said the legislation would allow a variety of ways to deny a person a license, ranging from a gambling-related conviction to having a shady past.

The provision was quietly amended to a bill without opposition in the Senate earlier this month, but has stirred quite a debate since gambling regulators were made aware of it.



“My main concern with this bill is that it is midnight legislation adopted just a short time before the end of the session,” said Art Bilek, executive vice president of the Chicago Crime Commission. “It it is such a good thing for the people of this state, then why did it have to be done in such a surreptitious manner.”



The bill is designed to rein in a new gaming board rule that would have required applicants to attest under oath that they had never operated the machines before they were legalized.



It was shepherded by some well-connected lobbyists for the Illinois Coin Machine Operators Association, including Joseph Berrios, a longtime ally of House Speaker Michael Madigan and Madigan’s choice to become the next Cook County assessor.



Berrios, who also is the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party, has been spending time campaigning for assessor and lobbying for the bill. His campaign issued a statement praising the legislature for its favorable vote.



"I’m pleased that I could help get this bill passed during such a difficult fiscal time," Berrios said in an e-mail from his campaign. "However, as I have noted since last fall, once I become assessor I will resign as a lobbyist and my sole priority will be serving the people of Cook County with fairness and efficiency."



Berrios and other supporters of the measure have argued that Jaffe’s rule is too broad and vague to be applied in an even-handed way. They say the gaming board retains authority to deny video gambling licenses for wide range of reasons.

"At a time when the state is struggling for revenue, this measure will bring in $250 million to $500 million a year for use in state capital projects like roads and school construction," Berrios said. “It’s a win-win for the state. Our unemployment rate is at an all-time high and our schools are crumbling. This new revenue will help in so many ways."

In addition to what critics call an “amnesty” provision for all those operators who have been illegally paying off on the video machines, the bill also extends to truck stops and VFW posts the right to operate the machines. Last year’s law only allowed bars and restaurants to operate the video poker games.

Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, told colleagues on the House floor the Gaming Board already has “broad and substantial powers” to deny a license to anyone found by the board to have a criminal record, bad reputation or activities that would pose a threat to the public.

 

At the center of the debate is that the Gaming Board created a rule that determined any establishment caught operating illegal games after Dec. 16 would be unable to get licensed, Lang said.



But he argued that the board “curiously” added a provision that said anyone operating illegal games before Dec. 16 “may” be unable to be licensed, a standard that was too vague.



Thousands of potential applicants “have a right to know the rules and regulations and laws and statutes … don’t say ‘may,’” Lang said. “They have a right to know … what will be investigated and what won’t be investigated.”



Lang also advanced a follow-up proposal that would allow a restaurant to have video games in its own establishment if it, for example, rents space to an off-track betting parlor. The restaurant and OTB parlor would be prohibited from sharing proceeds from the video gambling.



Anti-gambling activist Anita Bedell told the House Executive Committee that the move represented a further “foot in the door” to a broader expansion of gambling throughout Illinois. The panel voted 10-1, sending the legislation to the full House.

Posted by Tribune staff at 1:40 p.m.

Gov. Pat Quinn today issued an amendatory veto of the McCormick Place overhaul
legislation, sending it back to the legislature with
revisions, including elimination of a hike in fees on airport taxi and bus rides
that would have raised additional marketing funds.

Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, and Senate Republican leader Christine Radogo of Lemont issued a joint statement vowing to override Quinn’s veto.

You can read more as the story develops from Tribune business writer Kathy Bergen and our Springfield bureau by clicking here.

Posted by John Byrne at 1:35 p.m.



State lawmakers need to stop relying on borrowing money and start choosing their priorities in the state budget, Mayor Richard Daley said today.

 

With the Senate set to consider a measure to borrow $4 billion to pay public pensions next year, Daley said taxpayers will end up suffering through high interest payments down the road because lawmakers won’t make tough decisions.
"Just like the federal government, they borrow and print money, other states borrow money," Daley said at a news conference about summer tourism at the Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. "In the long run, it’s all going to come – find out how it’s going to effect every taxpayer here. It’s going to effect you next year, the following year, the following year."

"You have to bite the bullet. These are difficult decisions you have to make. Some times you have to cut things out, and you have to hold back on spending," he said. "You have to do these things if you want to balance the budget."

The city is looking at borrowing $170 million or so to cover back pay raises for police and firefighters following an arbitrator’s ruling on a contract dispute.

""Eventually we pay it right back. It’s a very small amount of money," Daley said. "That’s nothing compared to the state. We will pay that right back, because we have to do that."

The Chicago Public Schools could face cuts in state aid in the budget, which district officials have said could force thousands of teacher layoffs and bigger class sizes.

 

Education should be a priority in Springfield, Daley said.

 

"What are your priorities? That is the key," he said.

 

Daley also praised a neighbor who called 311 to report he hadn’t seen a pair of elderly neighbors recently around their home in the 1500 block of East 69th Street.

 

The couple was found by city workers trapped in their apartment by floor-to-ceiling debris.

 

"(The neighbor) made that call. Whether it’s 311 or 911, please make those necessary calls," Daley said.

 

There had been no other recent 311 calls to the home of Jesse and Thelma Gaston said.

 

"In October 2009 there was only one 311 call about garbage at that address, which the Department of Streets and Sanitation responded to," he said.

Posted by Ray Long and Michelle Manchir at 5:07 p.m.; last updated at 9:17 p.m.

SPRINGFIELD — The Democratic-led House passed legislation tonight to borrow $4 billion tonight to cover payments for the state pension system and cobble together a shaky state budget, hours after the same effort failed by one vote.



The borrowing plan was approved with the bare minimum 71 votes with the help of a couple of lame-duck Republicans who broke ranks as supporters argued borrowing now is the best of a number of bad options. Forty-four lawmakers were opposed. You can see how they voted by clicking here.



The breakthrough vote came as the Memorial Day deadline for passing a budget looms large and the visceral politics of Election Day could not be mistaken. Republicans mostly held firm against any proposal that called for borrowing, and Democrats contended it was the only way to end the spring session.



House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, said borrowing the money would cost the state $1 billion over eight years. But skipping the pension payment next year, which is also under consideration, could cost $20 billion over time because of losses in , Currie said.



"So 20-1 ratio, you tell me what’s the responsible thing to do,” Currie said.

Currie’s first attempt got 70 votes — one short of passage. The second attempt got the 71 votes needed for a three-fifths majority.



Rep. David Miller, D-Lynwood, a candidate for state comptroller, had voted against the borrowing measure on the first vote. Before the second attempt, Miller talked with House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, and huddled in Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn’s office, brushing off reporters along the way.



As he spoke during debate before the second vote, Miller said: “I do not like supporting this bill. I do not like it.”



But Miller, who had sought to raise taxes in prior years to help the state’s bleak finances, said he would vote for borrowing “because it’s the right thing to do” now.

“You’ve got to do the mature thing which is to at least get us through this crisis, no matter how bad it is," Miller told reporters after the vote.



Miller said he’s not sure how his vote will impact his run for comptroller, but said his focus today was not on his future but the people he represents now.



“At some point you have to do some soul searching about why you’re here in the first place.”



He said he was not offered anything in return for his vote by the governor.



Two Republicans who aren’t seeking re-election, Reps. Bill Black of Danville and Bob Biggins of Elmhurst, were needed to reach the 71 votes in favor of the proposal.

The House also approved a plan giving Quinn the emergency authority to make cuts within state agency budgets and transfer money to what he believes are more important needs. It also would cash in a large portion of the state’s share of the national tobacco settlement to raise $1.2 billion and allow Quinn to borrow $1 billion from specially earmarked-funds.



Despite the budget action, the state will still face a $13 billion deficit and have $6 billion in unpaid bills, according to state Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, the Chicago Democrat who serves as House Speaker Michael Madigan’s top deputy.



Ever-mindful of election year concerns, the measure also incorporated some suggestions from a group of House Democrats that would cut mileage and lodging reimbursement rates for state lawmakers and require legislators and top elected officials to take 12 days without pay.



The measure also would require state agencies to review contracts to look for savings. But other suggestions, more politically sensitive, such as cutting education funding by $300 million and requiring state retirees to pay higher health-care costs were not part of the package.

The House also approved a tax amnesty proposal that would allow for people and companies owing back taxes to pay up without penalty, a move that supporters hopes would generate $250 million. The bill went to the Senate on a 102-14 vote.

Posted earlier…

SPRINGFIELD — House Democrats tonight found the votes they needed to pass a $4 billion borrowing plan to help balance the budget and cover state pension payments.

The approval came hours after the borrowing measure failed by one vote.

House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, said borrowing the money would cost $1 billion over eight years. Skipping the pension payment next year, which is also under consideration, could cost $20 billion over time, Currie said.



“So 20-1 ratio, you tell me what’s the responsible thing to do,” Currie told her colleagues.



The measure needed 71 votes to pass but received only 70 votes in favor while 46 voted against. One lawmaker, Rep. Beth Coulson, R-Glenview, voted present. You can see how lawmakers voted by clicking here.

There are 70 House Democrats, so some Republican votes were needed.



Breaking ranks from his Democratic colleagues, Rep. Jack Franks, D-Marengo, argued against the measure, saying it was time to look at responsible cuts in spending. “We’re talking about putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound,” Franks said.



Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, said he could not vote against the measure, saying both Democrats and Republicans need to take responsibility.



“This is a joint mess that we’ve got ourselves in,” Black said.



Quinn wasn’t prepared to give up, and lawmakers suggested they would try again.



“Well, we’ve got more to go,” Quinn said, saying he still wanted the borrowing plan to pass soon. “We’re working. We’re not done yet.”

Posted by John Byrne at 2:28 p.m.



Mayor Richard Daley said today that he will not propose a property tax increase as part of next year’s city budget.



But Daley said unspecified fee increases and service cuts remain on the table to balance the budget, describing those steps as "a last resort." Service cuts could be permanent, or last " a year or two," Daley said.

"We’re living in austere financial times in America," Daley said during a speech to the City Club of Chicago.



Daley also said new city beautification efforts will be put on hold, saving $4 million. Existing planters and trees will be maintained, but new ones will not be installed, he said.



A new program for city workers to get prescription drugs will save the city $12 million, Daley said.



Daley refused to comment on his re-election plans for next year during a question and answers session following his speech, urging attendees to participate in state and national elections that are coming up in November.

Posted by Hal Dardick at 1:08 p.m.



Banks foreclosing on vacant Chicago properties would have to board them up or post a guard outside under an ordinance the City Council Buildings Committee approved today, even as the sponsor acknowledged it might get thrown out in court.



The guards would have to be in place between 4 p.m. and 8 a.m. each day unless the buildings are boarded up. If the buildings are within 2,000 feet of a school, a guard would have to be posted 24 hours a day during the school year, even if the buildings are boarded up.

Sponsoring Ald. Richard Mell, 33rd, said the effect of foreclosures on neighborhoods is “the same type of disaster as the BP oil slick on the Louisiana coast….



“They’re retarding the growth of a neighborhood,” Mell added. “They are bringing down property values. . . . Crime is initiated in a lot of these abandoned buildings. Some of these we have found (have) drug dealings going on in them. And so we need a total effort by the federal government and the banks and the city to resolve this problem.”



Mell conceded that if the full council approves the ordinance next month, banks could challenge its legality, arguing that they can only be regulated by the federal government.



But he’s hoping for cooperation to address a growing problem, and said he wants the federal government to provide resources to address the issues of vacant buildings, in part to push foreclosures through the courts quicker.

As city law now stands, whomever holds title to vacant buildings must board them up or post a guard outside from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. But in most cases, the owners are in bad financial straits or nowhere to be found, and banks often don’t take title to the properties for more than a year.

Mell said that with help from U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., he has been able reduce the log of abandoned and foreclosed buildings in his ward from to 179 from 320. Some aldermen, he said, have more than 1,200 foreclosed, vacant properties in their wards.

Penalties for not following the ordinance would range from up to $600 for a first offense to more than 60 days in jail for a second offense.

Posted by Hal Dardick at 12:40 p.m.



A City Council committee today recommended approval of the Toyota sign that will tower over Wrigley Field’s bleachers as a way for the Cubs’ new owners to generate more money at the historic North Side ballpark.



Approval came after local Ald. Thomas Tunney, 44th, signed off, saying the Cubs’ owners had agreed to a four-year moratorium on new signs that are within the foul lines or affect the views from rooftop bleachers overlooking the park.

During that time, Tunney said he will work with the Ricketts family, which now owns Wrigley, to come up with an overall plan for signs in the park.

The Toyota sign, which could go up shortly after the June 9 council meeting at which a final vote is expected, will generate millions of dollars in Cubs revenue “without increasing ticket prices or charging more for food," according to Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts.



One advocate with a rooftop owners’ group opposed the sign, saying it would look down on a residential neighborhood, and a Wrightwood neighborhood resident cautioned against approving it before a master sign plan was in place.

Posted by John Chase at 12:35 p.m.

Continuing to deflect notions that President Barack Obama isn’t backing him, Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias announced today two White House officials will be coming to Illinois next month to campaign for him.

Secretary of Education and former Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan will join Giannoulias on the campaign trail on June 17, followed two days later by Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina, the campaign said. Duncan and Giannoulias have been friends for years and both were among a group with then state-senator Obama that regularly played basketball together.

Giannoulias’ campaign didn’t release any more details about the visits. The Democratic state treasurer, who faces Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk in November, has been stung by a series of problems. The most recent and notable issue has been the failure of his family’s bank, which was taken over last month by federal regulators.



Giannoulias won in 2006 with a big assist from Obama. But as Giannoulias moved last year to run for Senate, the White House tried to recruit Attorney General Lisa Madigan to run, signaling to many that Obama wasn’t fully behind Giannoulias.



Since then, Giannoulias and his campaign have sought to show the White House is indeed backing him. Last month, just days after Broadway Bank was taken over, Obama appeared at an event in the Downstate town of Quincy where he hugged Giannoulias and called him the “soon to be senator” from Illinois.

Posted by Michelle Manchir, Ray Long, Monique Garcia and Rick Pearson at 7:50 p.m.

SPRINGFIELD — As lawmakers try to cobble together a budget before their Memorial Day deadline, House Democrats on Monday started exploring two backup options on the major obstacle of how to make a $3.7 billion state worker pension payment.

A House committee approved a measure that would allow Gov. Pat Quinn to skip the payment next year. That has emerged as an option after Republicans balked at borrowing to cover the pension costs for the second year in a row.

House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, said lawmakers will attempt once more this week to win support for borrowing the money, but Democrats advanced the payment-skipping measure just in case.



“It’s important for us to have on the back burner something that will get us out of this bind,” Currie said.



Skipping the payment would result in billions of dollars in lost investment earnings over time, Currie said. Illinois has the most chronically underfunded pension system in the nation.



Leading House Democrats said they are working on another backup plan. To entice Republican support to get the 71 votes needed for approval, they would tie pension borrowing to approving new bonds to pay for road and school construction.



Democrats still are not confident that Republicans would support the combined package, but noted that in the past, GOP members voted for additional highway bonding and school construction and might fear criticism for failing to bring jobs and pork projects back to their home districts.



One House Republican, Rep. Bill Black of Danville, said he’s willing to vote to borrow for pensions. “I don’t see how you can leave here and not borrow money,” said Black, a member of House GOP leadership who is not seeking re-election.



Speaking in Chicago, Quinn did not box himself in politically during what is supposed to be the legislature’s final week. He refused to say if he’ll sign a spending plan that does not include pension borrowing.



“We want to do the right thing, so my focus is on that,” Quinn said. “I’m not going to anticipate anything other than that.”



Following a closed-door Democratic caucus tonight, Rep. Frank Mautino, D-Spring Valley, said the budget proposals to be considered on Tuesday will not have tax increases.



Rep. Elaine Nekritz, D-Northbrook, said a series of proposed cuts she put together with a coalition of rank-and-file Democrats would be heard in House committees Tuesday. But she wasn’t overly optimistic they would be approved. The proposed cuts include reducing vehicle mileage reimbursement rates for state workers, eliminating salaries for part-time board and commission members, trimming agency budgets and requiring state retirees to pay premiums for health care.

“Generally, when you’re talking about spending reductions and other things of that nature it runs into some challenges,” Nekritz said.

House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, declined to provide details on the budget plan.

Posted by David Kidwell and Ray Long at 6:31 p.m.

A video gambling bill strongly opposed by state regulators advanced in a House committee today and now awaits a vote that could send it to the governor.

The state’s top gambling regulator predicted House lawmakers would pass the legislation, which he said would give amnesty to operators who have illegally operated video poker machines in bars for years.

“It’s a disaster,” said Aaron Jaffe, chairman of the Illinois Gaming Board. “I have no idea all the power plays that are going on down there (Springfield) right now, but I can tell you that they are all listening to the wrong people.”

House Bill 4927, which passed quietly through the Senate earlier this month, would require a felony conviction on gambling charges before the gaming board could deny a license to operate video gambling machines in Illinois. Until last year gambling for money on the machines was illegal, but critics say few people were ever convicted of felony gambling charges for operating them.

Jaffe’s board adopted a new rule in January to require applicants to attest under oath that they never operated such a machine illegally in the past. The measure’s House sponsor said today Jaffe’s rule goes too far.

“It’s not the Gaming Board’s province to go back in time and find out who those people are, especially the way they drafted the rule. So because the rule was vague,” said state. Rep Lou Lang, D-Skokie, “we decided there needed to be some definition in the rule. Otherwise, who would go out and invest in these machines.”

The House Executive Committee voted 9-2 to send the bill to the full House.

The bill is being shepherded by the same lobbyists for the Illinois Coin Machine Operators Association who last year persuaded lawmakers to legalize the machines. Among them is Joe Berrios, who is the chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party and a candidate to become Cook County assessor.

Posted by Monique Garcia at 1:55 p.m.

Gov. Pat Quinn is not boxing himself in politically as lawmakers return to Springfield today to try to finish the state budget.

Today the governor refused to say if he’ll sign a spending plan that does not include major borrowing to make a massive state worker pension payment.

Quinn says the state can’t afford the nearly $4 billion payment and therefore should borrow instead of skipping the obligation altogether. But taking out another loan would require the support of Republican lawmakers, who so far are mostly opposed to the idea.

Legislators were prepared to vote on a budget plan two weeks ago until negotiations were sidelined in part because there was no agreement on what to do about the pension payment. Since then Quinn has been holding one-on-one meetings with lawmakers to help build support for the idea, but refuses to say if he’ll settle for a budget without the borrowing plan.



"We want to do the right thing, so my focus is on that," Quinn said. "I’m not going to anticipate anything other than that."



Quinn did indicate his support for a plan to cut approximately $1.2 billion from the budget that’s being pushed by a coalition of Democratic lawmakers.



The proposal would include cutting the vehicle mileage reimbursement rate for state employees as well as renegotiating or rebiding contracts, eliminating salaries for part time board and commission members and reducing spending level for executive agencies by five percent. Other savings measures including cutting $300 million in K-12 education spending and requiring retirees to pay premiums for health care.



Supporters acknowledged some of the cuts might not go over well in Springfield, but the ideas represent a good start.



"These are first steps," said Rep. Karen Yarbrough, D-Maywood. "We’re not finished yet."

From Sunday’s print edition:

160,000 homeowners forgo small rebates

Property-tax refunds, linked to parking meter sale, drew only
36,600 applications

More than 160,000 Chicago homeowners left money on the table — in
some cases, as much as $200 — by failing to apply for a property-tax
relief program that Mayor Richard Daley pushed to be included in this
year’s budget.

City Hall said about 200,000 homeowners could apply
for the money, but records show only 36,621 applications were filed by
the March 31 deadline.

That means the city stands to pay out less
than $4.5 million of the $35 million set aside for the payments, which
start at $25. There also will be promotional and administrative costs.
So far, less than $900,000 has been paid out to 6,991 homeowners,
officials said.

The money is coming from Daley’s much-criticized
$1.15 billion lease of the city parking meter system. When Daley
promoted the property-tax relief idea last fall, some aldermen
questioned the value of spending millions on a program they said would
do little, if anything, to help cash-strapped homeowners.

"It was a
political gimmick, and the voters saw it for what it was," said Ald.
Joe Moore, 49th. "Most people didn’t even see any value in taking the
time to apply for it."

Daley has been criticized by some aldermen
and budget watchdogs for relying too heavily on the parking meter
proceeds to balance recent budgets. Much of the one-time windfall was
supposed to be set aside. So, some aldermen aren’t lamenting the small
number of property-tax rebate applications.

"I guess the good news
is that we didn’t spend as much of our reserves on this gimmick," Moore
said. "The bad news is the mayor probably has more to raid for next
year."

The administration, however, is satisfied with the number
of applicants to the heavily promoted program, said a spokesman for the
Office of Budget and Management.

"You can’t expect everyone who is
potentially eligible to make an application, and we’re satisfied with
the results," spokesman Pete Scales said. "Thousands of people got
property-tax relief."

Aldermen initially balked at approving the
program, but the opposition withered after Daley suggested homeowners
could politically punish aldermen who voted against it.

Daley said
it is designed to blunt the impact of the phasing out of a state law
that limited property-tax increases caused, in part, by rising home
values.

That break, which ended this year in Chicago, was recently
reauthorized by the General Assembly, in an effort fraught with
political implications as November elections approach. It awaits the
signature of Gov. Pat Quinn.