- Lame landing? The Trib reports that Governor Quinn is appointing lame duck lawmaker Careen Gordon of Morris to an $86,000 job on the Illinois Prisoner Review Board a couple days after she voted for the massive income tax increase. She and the governor both deny any connection between the vote and new job.
- Send some slashes. A Sun-Times editorial encourages readers to send in their ideas for cutting and streamlining state government following the massive income tax hike. BGA says go for it.
- Deadbeat Davis? The Trib reports that State Rep. Monique Davis from Chicago’s South Side owes a million dollars in unpaid rent, taxes and penalties to the Chicago Board of Education and Cook County for office space that she’s occupied but not paid for over the past decade.
- Open and shut case. The Southtown Star reports the Illinois Attorney General’s office has slapped the Oak Forest City Council on the wrist for violating the Illinois Open Meetings act by discussing public issues behind closed doors in July. Live and learn.
- New York second. A lead editorial in the New York Times says “Illinois Wakes Up” in time to realize you can’t cut and trim your way out of a massive budget deficit, like many other states are trying to do, instead of biting the bullet and raising taxes.
- Hurts so bad. A Trib editorial looks at a worker’s compensation program that’s apparently out of control at the state prison in downstate Menard, where the officials who run the program have approved $10 million in worker’s compensation claims over the past three years—many for injuries allegedly caused by opening and closing cell doors. Sounds like a program in desperate need of reform.
- Cuomo’s majordomos? A New York Times story on new Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo’s alliance with a high-powered business group formed to counter public employee clout in the looming Albany budget battle.
What I’m Watching—Jan. 18, 2011
