The Illinois Policy Institute's blog offers a glimpse of the latest in Illinois politics and beyond. Have a tip? E-mail Michael Demkovich at michael@illinoispolicy.org. Want to comment? Join the conversation below. Don't see the blog post you're looking for? Visit our archives.
Food Carts Get Backing of Chicago Alderman 7/30/2010
by Amanda Griffin-Johnson
On Wednesday, Alderman Scott Waguespack introduced an ordinance that would allow mobile food trucks to prepare food on-site. The existing food trucks in the city are only allowed to sell food that is prepared and packaged beforehand.
"If we have all of our bases covered in terms of health and sanitation, we could have 60 of these truck start up in the first year. We could create 500 to 600 jobs right off the bat with a $13.5 million payroll. That's how many people have called to say they're excited about it," [Waguespack] said.
Waguespack said a would-be restaurant owner could purchase a truck for less than $100,000, a fraction of the cost of a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
Jerry Roper, president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, said he's all for the idea.
"We see it as another boutique-like industry that is very competitive in New York and Los Angeles. You'll be able to get hot food instead of buying something that's been wrapped and prepared a day or two in advance," Roper said.
Will the city open the door for entrepreneurs to enhance the Chicago food scene? We'll have to wait and see. You can read the full Sun-Times article here.
The News-Gazette sounded a warning today with regards to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), reacting to the efforts to weaken FOIA some have already attempted:
The new Freedom of Information law was barely two weeks old when legislators amended it the first time in January, repealing a provision that made evaluations of public school employees available. Several other measures were introduced aimed at various FOIA provisions. The Legislature then passed House Bill 5154 in the spring session, which amended the state's Personnel Records Review Act to exempt all performance evaluations of public employees from disclosure under FOIA.
Quinn responded with an amedatory veto, saying the amendments were "a departure from the groundbreaking legislation that I approved just last year, making our State's open information laws among the most robust in the entire country."
Although this attempt to weaken failed (for the most part, Quinn could have vetoed the entire bill and instead exempted only public safety officials), The News-Gazzette cautions legislators will be under a considerable amount of pressure from public employee unions and the Illinois Municipal League when the bill goes back for a vote during the November veto session:
Regardless of the outcome on H.B. 5154, there are powerful forces lined up in opposition to the tone of government transparency the FOIA tries to establish. At a time when government in Illinois desperately needs transparency, death by a thousand cuts of FOIA can be expected to continue.
Like most good policy, government transparency will constantly be under fire. Unless leaders and the public take a strong, active role in supporting it, it will fall to the pressure of various groups keeping the heat on legislators every day.
Want to be part of supporting and advancing government transparency? Check out our volunteer Liberty Leaders Program and see how you can get involved. To find out more about transparency in general, click here.
Hats off to Governor Pat Quinn and State Senator Pamela Althoff (R-McHenry) for their vocal support of greater transparency and responsible financial decision making in Springfield. It comes in the wake of a recent Institute report that showed 97 percent of the bill's awaiting the governor's signature have no fiscal note attached.
After the legislature’s unprecedented move to push the thorny task of budget balancing on the current governor, it would seem that support for more fiscal analysis would be advantageous for Governor Pat Quinn. And so it is. Galesburg Radio 14 WGIL reports that the governor agrees that such price tags would be helpful. "The more we ascertain costs the better," Quinn says. The unprecedented maneuver to shuffle the bulk of the legislature’s job on one man illustrates quite vividly the lack of responsibility amongst our law making body. So we get why Quinn supports this measure, but why not tackle it? Let’s hold our governor to his claim that if fiscal notes were more prevalent, lawmakers themselves would be more careful about the cost of the legislation they are proposing.
In addition, State Senator Pam Althoff deserves our commendation; Althoff has joined us in our aim to expand fiscal transparency in Springfield. Althoff will become a lead Senate sponsor of a measure that would greatly expand the use and scope of fiscal notes. Althoff agrees with the Institute’s assessment of the current fiscal note process and claims that "under the current system, lawmakers have little idea how much a bill will cost taxpayers over the long-term. As we face record budget deficits and debt, that must change so we can be sure the measures we pass are good for our long-term fiscal health."
Illinois needs to use the tools it has available to clean up the state budget; the support of a simple measure to improve transparency and fiscal consideration is something many of us can agree upon.
You meet with your accountant. She tells you, "A panel of financial planners went over your books. You're living way beyond your means." What would you do?
Despite White House goal to undo Reagan's legacy, our 40th President may have the last laugh as Americans react badly to Obama's big government bender.
Governor Christie to Other Politicians: Get a Spine! 7/28/2010
by Michael Demkovich
Governor Christie of New Jersey appeared on MSNBC to talk about his no nonsense style. "How do you do this in other states?" asks an anchor. "You have a spine, but a lot of other politicians don't."
Christie quickly responds: "Well, they better get one...If you don't speak directly to people and don't treat them like adults, then you are bound for failure."
We love many of the reforms that Gov. Christie is implementing in New Jersey and hope Illinois will get to see many of them in the near future.
Celebrating Milton Friedman: The Awesome Power of Free Enterprise 7/28/2010
by Joe O'Malley
If he were still around today, Milton Friedman would have been turning 98 this upcoming weekend. Here is a debate between Friedman and Phil Donahue during the 1970's which demonstrates how powerful Friedman's ideas can be.
Clearly, Friedman relies on lessons from history as well as common sense to stop Phil Donahue and his arguments in their tracks.
There are three important points that Friedman emphasizes during the debate:
Besides free enterprise, there has been no other vehicle through which the masses have escaped poverty.
Where have the great innovations in society come from? Would government officials been able to create the modern assembly line or discover the Theory of Relativity?
Do statists believe that politicians reward people based on their virtue or political clout?
These are all important points which can be brought up every time somebody argues that free enterprise has failed.
It looks like Cook County was counting its eggs before they hatched. The county recently found out seven contracts totaling nearly $175,000 would not be reimbursed by grants from the federal government. The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Now a strapped Cook County government is left with the final tab for seven contracts -- five awarded under a federal energy grant to promote the county's "green" initiatives and two to promote more than $10 million in federal 2008 flood relief, officials said.
That includes a contract given to CGC Communications Inc., the public relations firm privately owned by Stroger's Deputy Chief of Staff Carla Oglesby. She was hit with a one-week suspension for signing off on the contract.
During Tuesday's meeting, officials revealed that grant administrators rejected applications for reimbursement for those contracts under investigation. Chief Financial Officer Jaye Morgan Williams told commissioners that the county has "eaten" the costs.
Cook County Commissioner Bridget Gainer says this points to a gap in the system, since it's clear contracts and checks were handed out before anyone knew whether the grant would cover it.
"What I'd like to see happen from now on is before any grant dollars are spent, we need to assess whether it's appropriate and reimbursable," Gainer said.
New Searchable Database for Cook County Lobbyists 7/28/2010
by Will Compernolle
Cook County will now provide a searchable online database regarding lobbyists' activities, according to the Daily Herald.
The site, at cookcountyclerk.com, lists all 188 registered lobbyists in the county, what they're lobbying about, who they're contacting, and what they're being paid.
Cook County Clerk David Orr said the site makes the lobbying registration process easier and more useful because it's paperless, available to the public 24 hours a day, requires reporting within 48 hours, and discloses a previously unavailable database that can be searched by keyword, lobbyist or official.
According to the Cook County Clerk's website, the database is the result of the Lobbyist Sunshine Initiative, a package of amendments proposed by Orr and Bridget Gainer (D-10th district) that was unanimously adopted by the County Board on October 6th, 2009. Cook County Clerk David Orr said, “We're now getting information already that we didn't get before...We believe it's quite successful in trying to shed light on who's trying to influence government.”
The website is a step in the right direction in making Cook County government more transparent. As Rep. Gainer said, the new database “gives taxpayers the upper hand.”
To read the whole Daily Herald article, click here.
Schaumburg Township Area Transparency Results, 4 of 18 receive passing grades 7/28/2010 by Brian Costin
An 6-month follow up audit of the Schaumburg
Township area in Northwestern Cook County revealed that still only 4 of 18 local
government agencies graded received a passing grade on basic online
transparency guidelines.
The “Local Transparency Project”, a project of the non-partisan Illinois Policy Institute, consists of two separate transparency audits 6 weeks apart on 10 different online transparency categories
including elected & administrative official contacts, meetings,
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), budgets, financial audits,
expenditures, employee’s salary & benefits, contracts, lobbying, and
taxes & fees information.
