Indeed, there is little doubt Quinn has stayed at budget motels as a top state official.<\/p>\n
Before taking over as governor, Quinn traveled extensively as lieutenant governor and routinely paid for his own food and stayed at lower-cost motels, including Super 8, an Associated Press review of state records found in March.<\/p>\n
Yet, it is the VIP card that Quinn touts as a symbol of his thrift that is at question.<\/p>\n
After he was sworn in as governor in late January of last year, Quinn held a lengthy news conference with reporters. At one point, he took the VIP card out of his wallet before the cameras and said, “I am proud of being frugal. I’m a VIP member of the Super 8, and I moved up from Motel 6.”<\/p>\n
Then again last month, during his long state-of-the-state address, Quinn brought the card up as he told lawmakers he would continue to cut spending.<\/p>\n
“I think it’s important that we embark on this journey, and I want to ensure you, over the course of this year, that we will continue to cut costs in government,” the Chicago Democrat said. “There has only been one governor in the history of Illinois who has a Super 8 card, and I’ve used it as governor, and I’m going to continue using it where appropriate. I think it’s important to show economy everywhere you can. And I have a VIP card, at that particular dwelling place, or lodging place.”<\/p>\n
Following that speech, the Daily Herald requested a copy of his Super 8 VIP club card and copies of the notes he used during delivery on the state House floor. The governor’s office denied both requests, which were filed under the state’s new Freedom of Information Act that Quinn heralded.<\/p>\n
“The governor’s Super 8 discount card is his personal card and thus not subject to the Act,” Erin Knowles, associate general counsel in the governor’s office, said in denying the request.<\/p>\n
The papers Quinn used to deliver his speech were deemed exempt from disclosure because they were preliminary drafts and notes in which opinions were expressed or policies or actions formulated.<\/p>\n
“Any notes or materials used by the governor were clearly preliminary in nature as they were used by the governor in finalizing his State of the State,” Knowles said in the rejection letter.<\/p>\n
When Quinn was approached in the halls of the state Capitol Wednesday and asked about the Daily Herald’s request for a copy of the card, he called the request disrespectful.<\/p>\n
“It belongs to me,” Quinn said. “Why would I give it to you? It doesn’t belong to you.”<\/p>\n
\u2022 Daily Herald State Government Editor John Patterson contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
Problem: Discount program ended in 2004<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Read the original article on DailyHerald.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services<\/a><\/p>\n With Illinois in a financial crisis, Gov. Pat Quinn repeatedly touts his membership in Super 8 hotel’s VIP club as testament to his frugality. But Quinn didn’t like being asked by the Daily Herald for a copy of his membership card. “Most people when they hear somebody say something that’s from the governor of Illinois, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345014\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/img><\/a>
\n<\/img><\/a><\/p>\n
<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"