Obama to Build Presidential Library on Chicago’s South Side - WSJ

 

The nation’s third-largest city was the front-runner from the start and, although stumbling at points, emerged from a shortlist that included New York’s Columbia University, where Mr. Obama did his undergraduate studies, and the University of Hawaii, located in the state where Mr. Obama was born.

“All the strands of my life came together and I really became a man when I moved to Chicago,” Mr. Obama said in a statement Tuesday.

ENLARGE

President Barack Obama, accompanied by first lady Michelle Obama, speaks in the East Room of the White House. President Obama will build his presidential library on Chicago’s South Side, choosing the city where his political career was born. Photo: Associated Press

The president worked as a community organizer in Chicago and later was elected to the Illinois state senate and U.S. Senate while a resident of the city’s South Side. His wife, Michelle Obama, grew up on the South Side and worked as an administrator at The University of Chicago, which spearheaded the winning bid. The children of the president and first lady also were born here.

The library spurred not only a national competition but one among Chicago neighborhoods, with bids coming from various sections of the city, including Bronzeville, the near West Side, and the far South Side. And while the winning proposal is tied to the University of Chicago, library organizers said they plan to work with the three finalists that weren’t selected, including establishing a presence at Columbia and collaborating with University of Illinois at Chicago.

The Barack Obama Foundation still has to decide on a final site, saying it will choose between land in Washington and Jackson parks in the coming months. Plans call for the library to be part of a larger facility known as the Barack Obama Presidential Center, which will include the library, a museum and offices, and activity space. The foundation will raise the money to build the center, and after its completion, the National Archives will take over operation of the library and museum like with other presidential libraries.

While Chicago was the leader from the start, the use of parkland drew criticism, raising concerns the city would lose out. But elected officials, including Mayor Rahm Emanuel who served as Mr. Obama’s first chief of staff, took steps to make the public land available, and in the end, the Obamas’ deep ties to the city won out.

“Every value, every memory, every important relationship to me exists in Chicago. I consider myself a South Sider,” Mrs. Obama said.

Tuesday’s decision is likely to renew speculation on where the Obamas will live after the White House, and whether they will return to Chicago or settle elsewhere such as New York City.

Attendance at presidential libraries vary with those of recent Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton attracting large numbers of visitors and the libraries of Presidents Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy remaining popular. The lowest attendance last year came at the Herbert Hoover presidential library, which was the nation’s first such library. In total, 2.5 million people visited the 13 presidential libraries last year, according to the National Archives.

Part of what went into Tuesday’s decision is the potential economic boost the library could provide to Chicago’s South Side. The area is rich in history and remains the heart of the city’s black community, but has neighborhoods that have long struggled with high unemployment and violence.

Mr. Emanuel described the library as a once in a lifetime opportunity “that will bring tremendous cultural, economic, and educational benefits to the South Side.”

Read the entire story:  Obama to Build Presidential Library on Chicago’s South Side - WSJ

In Illinois Capitol, lobbying a growing business : News

 

SPRINGFIELD — When it comes to his pledge to grow business in Illinois, Gov. Bruce Rauner's presence in the Capitol has triggered an increase in one at least one sector.

According to a review of state records, the number of lobbyists patrolling the marble-floored statehouse is at its highest level in five years.

While some say the uptick is linked to having a Republican in the governor's office for the first time in 12 years, others believe a push by utility companies for favorable changes in state law is playing a role.

"With the new administration, there are those who do business with the state who feel the need to have more direct contact with executive branch employees," said state Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington.

In addition, the change in administration has left former members of Gov. Pat Quinn's inner circle and former lawmakers ready to cash in their connections working as lobbyists.

According to a review of state lobbying records requested by the The Southern's Springfield Bureau, 1,733 lobbyists registered with the Illinois Secretary of State's office from January through April.

The number is up from 1,700 during the same time period last year and up by nearly 100 lobbyists who registered in 2013.

It means there are nearly 10 lobbyists for each of the state's 177 members of the House and the Senate.

The numbers also show a move away from companies having their own, in-house lobbying teams. So far this year, there are 1,973 lobbying entities or organizations, up from 1,763 five years ago.

That's an indication that more businesses are outsourcing their lobbying efforts by contracting with specific lobbying companies, said David Weisbaum, director of the Illinois Secretary of State Index Department, which administers the state lobbying law.

Brady attributes some of the increase to the energy sector, in which major state utilities are looking to Springfield to help their profit margin.

"They are gearing up with more lobbyists to more effectively get their message out," Brady said.

Among businesses that have gone on a lobbyist hiring spree is Exelon Generation, which has assembled a team of 16 lobbyists this spring, up from eight last year.

The company is threatening to close nuclear power plants in Clinton, Cordova and Byron unless the General Assembly approves a plan that would guarantee utility power buys from low greenhouse gas sources such as its nuke plants.

The roster of Exelon hires includes lobbyists with strong ties to both Republicans and Democrats. Former Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady is on board, as are Eric Madiar and Ron Holmes, both of whom were top aides to Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago.

AT&T and its subsidiaries have a similarly large contingent of lobbyists as the telecommunications giant seeks legislation that would allow it to spend less money on the upkeep of its older landline infrastructure.

Among its army of lobbyists is former state Sen. Denny Jacobs, D-East Moline, and a host of contractors with strong Republican connections.

A key lobbying observer says he's not so sure the increase can be linked to the push by Exelon and AT&T.

"There's always something like that going on," said Keith Sias, a Springfield-based lobbyists with the Illinois Credit Union League.

Sias, who is heading up the Illinois Third House this year, which is an organization for statehouse lobbyists, said he's not aware of any particular changes in state law that would have triggered more people to register.

When it comes to wining and dining lawmakers, the biggest spending lobbying organization so far in 2015 is the Ounce of Prevention Fund, which is headed by First Lady Diana Rauner. Reports show the group, which is a public-private partnership that prepares children for success in school and in life, has spent $132,415 to wine and dine lawmakers this year.

The Illinois Association of Park Districts has spent $87,151 this year on lawmakers and public officials as part of its lobbying efforts.

In Illinois Capitol, lobbying a growing business : News

Chris Christie Spent $82,000 In Taxpayer Money On Concessions At NFL Games

 

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) spent more than $82,000 in taxpayer money on concessions at NFL games -- a sum that Republicans later reimbursed to the state Treasury to avoid impropriety.

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According to a New Jersey Watchdog analysis of records from the governor's office that was published Monday, Christie used $300,000 of his $360,000 state allowance over five years to purchase food, alcohol and desserts. Some $82,594 of that sum went to Delaware North Sportservice, which operates the concessions at MetLife Stadium, the home of both the New York Giants and Jets teams.

To avoid a potential scandal that could embarrass their rising political star, the New Jersey Republican State Committee reimbursed the Treasury in March 2012 for Christie’s purchases from “DNS Sports.” Since then, the governor has refrained from using his expense account at MetLife and other sports venues.

According to the analysis, Christie was also a big fan of the grocery store Wegmans Food Markets, where he spent $76,373 in 53 shopping runs. A spokesman for the governor defended the nature of the expenses, explaining they were for "official" and "business" purposes.

This isn't the first time the potential 2016 presidential candidate's expenses have come under scrutiny. In February, The New York Times detailed the governor's taste for private jets and access to celebrities. And earlier this year, ethics watchdogs raised concerns about Christie's all-expense-paid trip to watch a playoff game featuring the Dallas Cowboys -- of which the governor is a fan -- that was paid for by team owner Jerry Jones.

Chris Christie Spent $82,000 In Taxpayer Money On Concessions At NFL Games

Illinois cities prepare for pension diversion law - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

 

ROCKFORD — Cities across the state with underfunded police and firefighter retirement systems must get payments back on track or risk losing a slice of state tax dollars.

Municipal governments are preparing to meet the demands of a 2011 pension law that requires them to fund employee pensions to required levels in 2016 or risk having state grants diverted from their intended purpose into the pension fund. The law is designed to bring pension funds up to 90 percent funded by 2040, and local governments must make payments that will put them on track to do so. The law is not affected by the Illinois Supreme Court's decision Friday to strike down a piece of 2013 pension legislation.

The law is a concern for many municipalities that have a lot of ground to make up, said Joe McCoy, legislative director for the Illinois Municipal League. "The difficulty and the reason we have so many concerns is, for many communities ,that's a pretty steep ramp."

The law says that in 2016, one-third of state grants could be diverted to the pension fund if the required payment isn't met. That increases to two-thirds in 2017 and all of the grants by 2018.

"That's a lot of money for cities to lose out of their operating budgets," McCoy said. The consequence could be cuts in services or property tax increases to meet the pension demands. Gov. Bruce Rauner proposed a property tax freeze during his State of the State speech in February, which puts a further squeeze on municipal budgets, McCoy said.

"We're actually, through a myriad of different policies, encouraging municipal budget problems."

McCoy said pension reform is needed to help municipal and state budgets.

The Great Recession of 2008 was the start of many municipalities' pension funding problems, Loves Park Mayor Darryl Lindberg said. His city does not levy a property tax, which is how most governments fund their pension systems. The city relies heavily on sales tax, so it suffered major losses during the recession when shoppers were buying less.

"When we hit the recession, most communities, including Loves Park, reduced (pension contributions) because we just couldn't afford to put it in," he said.

The city's police pension was 48 percent funded as of April 2013, the city's most recent audit. It's risen since then because the city has met its required contributions for the past two years in a row, contributing $774,000 last year, Treasurer John Danielson said. He and Lindberg said the city will be able to meet its requirements in 2016.

The village of Rockton's police pension fund is about 76 percent funded, Mayor Dale Adams said. The village pays $250,000, about 5 percent of its general fund budget, to finance its pension contribution. Adams said the village will be able to meet the required payments next year.

Read more by clicking on the following:  Illinois cities prepare for pension diversion law - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

Cuomo Orders Emergency Measures to Protect Workers at Nail Salons - NYTimes.com

 

New York State has a long history of confronting wage theft and unfair labor practices head on, and today, with the formation of this new Enforcement Task Force, we are aggressively following in that tradition,” Mr. Cuomo said in a statement. “We will not stand idly by as workers are deprived of their hard-earned wages and robbed of their most basic rights.”

Articles in this series are examining the working conditions and potential health risks endured by nail salon workers.

Part 1 The Price of Nice NailsMAY 7, 2015

 

Part 2 Perfect Nails, Poisoned WorkersMAY 8, 2015

 

The swiftly assembled plans, while still taking shape, are the start of an effort to reshape an industry that has been a major entry point for immigrants into the city’s economy, but in which exploiting the people who toil over hands and feet appears to be, in many instances, simply the way business is done.

Salons will be required to publicly post signs that inform workers of their rights, including the fact that it is illegal to work without wages or to pay money for a job — a common practice in the nail salon industry, according to workers and owners. The signs will be in half a dozen languages, including those most spoken in the industry — Korean, Chinese and Spanish.

The emergency measures announced on Sunday will become permanent in the coming months, the governor’s office said.

Under new rules, manicurists must wear gloves to reduce the risks of contracting skin conditions, such as fungal infections and warts, and developing burns from handling chemicals.

The plan currently will also require masks, though occupational health experts say the hospital-style masks that manicurists sometimes wear give only the appearance of safety. Such masks do almost nothing to prevent exposure to chemicals, such as dibutyl phthalate, toluene and formaldehyde, that are used in nail products and have been linked to leukemia and fetal defects. And salons will be required to be ventilated, to reduce the chemical fumes.

The state’s Health Department, one of the agencies in the task force, will conduct a study of the most effective safety practices, and the eventual rules put in place may change in scope depending upon the findings.

Salons will now be required to be bonded — which is intended to ensure, through a contract with a bonding agency, that workers can eventually be paid if salon owners are found to have underpaid the workers. The move is an attempt to counteract the phenomenon of salon owners’ hiding assets when they are found guilty of wage theft.

Many workers are undocumented and fear exposing themselves to the authorities, so they rarely speak up. The agencies involved in the task force do not inquire about workers’ immigration status as part of their investigations, the governor’s office said. An education campaign will also be introduced through community groups to inform workers they have the right be compensated fully, regardless of their immigration status, and encourage them to report mistreatment.

The framework for the emergency measures began to take shape shortly after the first article was published on Thursday, according to Alphonso B. David, counsel for the governor. Staff members from several agencies reacted strongly, and began to call one another upon reading the findings, convening on Friday for hours of brainstorming sessions to hash out the plan. A decision was made to take emergency measures rather than go through the usual route by which policies are updated, which involve time-consuming steps like periods of public comment, Mr. David said.

“The article highlighted a significant problem in New York State,” Mr. David said. “We cannot wait to address the problem.”

Cuomo Orders Emergency Measures to Protect Workers at Nail Salons - NYTimes.com

Statehouse Insider: It's not just Democrats critical of Rauner's budget plan - News - The State Journal-Register - Springfield, IL

 

• Democrats have complained for weeks that the budget Gov. BRUCE RAUNER introduced earlier this year — which doesn't rely on any revenue increases — is totally out of balance.

  They've seized on the fact that the Republican governor is booking $2.2 billion in savings from his version of pension reform, a plan that hasn't passed the General Assembly. Moreover, even if it does, his critics contend, he can't count on the savings because it will likely be tied up in the courts, the same way the last pension reform plan was challenged in court — and ultimately rejected. There are other factors, too, but that is the biggest dollar amount.

  That criticism could always be dismissed as little more than partisan sniping. But the Civic Federation, a respected fiscal watchdog group, doesn't fall into that category. Funded largely with corporate money, it can hardly be called a Democratic front group.

  What does the Civic Federation think of Rauner's budget proposal? Not much. The group issued a lengthy analysis last week and concluded that it "opposes Governor Rauner's recommended budget for FY2016 because it relies heavily on projected savings that do not appear to be achievable or prudent in light of the state of Illinois' obligations and long-term policy objectives."

  The administration responded by doubling down on the idea that the governor's "turnaround agenda," which also hasn't passed the General Assembly, will free up resources that will make everything work out.

  They might be better off paying closer attention to the federation's report.

  * It was a week of sending messages to Rauner around the Statehouse last week.

  First up was Senate President JOHN CULLERTON, D-Chicago, who said Rauner would be better served to start concentrating on developing a new state budget rather than continuing to focus on passing his "turnaround agenda." See above for how well that worked.

  Cullerton's comments were followed the next day by a committee of the whole hearing in the House on workers' compensation reform. Officially, it's supposed to give all House members a chance to hear testimony on a complicated issue and ask witnesses questions. Cynics will point out that these things often serve to signal where the House is heading on a particular issue. If that's the case, the message was that changing workers' comp laws faces an uphill fight in the House. At least any sweeping changes that could affect injured workers may be in trouble.

  Page 2 of 2 - Republicans complained that the hearing was loaded in favor of workers and that employers didn't get a sufficient chance to explain the difficulties they face with workers' comp laws. They're right, but that wasn't necessarily the point of the hearing.

  The workers' comp production was followed a day later by the House orchestrating a vote on Rauner's proposed human services budget. To no one's surprise, the House voted down Rauner's version of the budget. Republicans and Rauner complained that it was all political theater. OK, but it was theater with a message that the proposed cuts to human services aren't going to fly in the House.

  The question is, Is anyone listening?

  * "The city of Chicago is in deep, deep yogurt." Rauner at a speech last week explaining the financial challenges facing the city.

  * The annual House-Senate softball game was played last week.

  The House won in a 16-10 pitchers' duel, taking back the trophy from the upper chamber.

  Before the game, Sen. MATT MURPHY, R-Palatine, a key player in previous games, placed himself on the injured reserve list. During the 2013 game, he badly injured his knee and required "extensive" surgery to repair it.

  Sen. DAN KOTOWSKI, D-Park Ridge, made a lengthy and impassioned plea on the Senate floor for Murphy to suit up. It didn't work.

  — Contact Doug Finke: doug.finke@sj-r.com, 788-1527, twitter.com/dougfinkesjr.

• By Doug Finke, State Capitol Bureau

   

Statehouse Insider: It's not just Democrats critical of Rauner's budget plan - News - The State Journal-Register - Springfield, IL

Rauner’s term limit tango

 

By Rich Miller

The new legislative “working groups” designed to hammer out compromises on Gov. Bruce Rauner’s “Turnaround Agenda” finally began meeting in secret last week. At least one of them got a bit heated.
A working group tasked with writing ethics legislation hit a brick wall right off the bat when it came time to discuss Rauner’s term limits constitutional amendment. Two Democrats on the committee reportedly said there was plenty of time to deal with the amendment next year, since it couldn’t be placed onto the ballot until November of 2016.
Nope, said the administration representative, according to sources. The governor wants that amendment passed by the end of the spring legislative session. When he was met with stiff resistance, the administration official reportedly became agitated and more than implied that if the constitutional amendment isn’t passed by May 31st, then the governor would not support any revenue increases to patch next fiscal year’s massive $6 billion hole.
The Democrats were shocked. Would the governor really threaten to crash the entire government over a term limits bill?
Yep.
And that message was apparently sent to pretty much all of the working groups last week. Pass this stuff or deal with the horrific consequences of allowing the temporary income tax hike to partially expire.
The governor has repeatedly said that he fully intends to take advantage of the budget crisis in order to push his agenda through the General Assembly. And he has made no bones about what he wants. Term limits have been on his agenda since day one of his campaign. So, the threat shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise. Still, there were some thunderstruck Democrats last week.
Every poll has shown that the public is wildly enthusiastic about term limits. But legislators? Not so much. There are sound policy arguments against the simplistic solution, including the danger that it would empower experienced lobbyists and staff even more than they already are. Still, the idea’s popularity means that if it’s put on the floor for a final vote, legislators will be placed in a highly uncomfortable position and many will have to vote for the thing – so they absolutely don’t want to be backed into that corner.
Not everything went horribly. The ethics working group, for instance, eventually decided to skip over term limits for now in order to prevent a meltdown. They plan to take up a proposal to codify one of the governor’s executive orders on state employee ethics, which is viewed as pretty much a no-brainer.
The working group will also tackle the governor’s “conflict of interest” legislation, which would, in part, ban direct campaign contributions to members of the executive branch from public employee unions that negotiate employment contracts. The proposal would also ban contributions from hospitals and nursing homes which receive Medicaid funds.
Surprisingly enough, legislative Democrats are open to those ideas. One reason is a bit on the crass side. The less money that unions like AFSCME can give to gubernatorial and other statewide candidates, the more money the unions will be able to contribute to legislative candidates. Plus, as we’ve seen time and time again, money pretty much always finds a way around statutory barricades. AFSCME, for instance, could simply give money to the Democratic Governors Association or the Democratic Party of Illinois or start its own “dark money” independent expenditure PAC.
And there’s apparently even room for compromise on the term limits amendment, insiders say. One reported Rauner fallback position is to apply the limits only to newly elected legislators, perhaps sometime down the road.
But even if they can reach an accord on all of the governor’s proposals, they will still have to deal with the horrendous budget deficit. One of the smartest people I know at the Statehouse took me aside the other day and confided he was alarmed about the coming problem.
The budget hole is estimated to be at least $6 billion. But, this person said, let’s just say that Rauner agrees to $3 billion in tax hikes along with $3 billion in cuts. How the heck does he get that turkey passed? The GA spent weeks fighting over a mere $26 million in cuts to this fiscal year’s budget. Who will vote to cut $3 billion? And what Democrat will vote to raise taxes by $3 billion when that means another $3 billion will have to be cut?
Tough times ahead.

Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.

Rauner’s term limit tango