August 20, 2010

This week, legislation intended to generate much-needed revenue was signed into law, which will provide a five-week amnesty period for tax delinquents.

Senate Bill 377 (PA 96-1435) allows individuals who have accumulated back taxes between June 30, 2002, and July 1, 2009, to pay those taxes penalty-free from Oct. 1 to Nov. 8 without being fined. Tax delinquents who don’t pay during the amnesty period will see all interest and penalties double.

August 17, 2010

Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) issued the following statement upon the conclusion of the trial of former Governor Rod Blagojevich.

"One of my biggest concerns is that the Blagojevich defense team may have convinced people that he was just practicing politics as usual in Illinois. If that is the case, it is a real indictment of the political leadership in this state. If there is one thing that elected officials need to do in Illinois, it is to send a strong signal that the politics of the past are over, regardless of what the final verdict may be in the Blagojevich trial.

"I intend to redouble my efforts to achieve fundamental, structural reforms of state government. It is our job as elected officials to make sure the public has confidence in the integrity of their government. We all have a responsibility to send a clear signal that Illinoisans do not need to tolerate even the appearance of conflicts of interest by elected officials.

"That means reforming state contracting rules to guarantee competition and protect against political influence. Elected officials need to get out of the business of lobbying. We need to end legislative scholarships and other outdated perks. We need real campaign finance reform. We need to make government more open and transparent and that means opening up the legislative process and empowering individual legislators to follow the will of their constituents.

"We need a clean break from the past so that no corrupt politician can ever again claim to be simply following business as usual."

The Quinn Administration’s "MGT Push" program which released hundred of inmates, including violent offenders, almost immediately upon their arrival within the state corrections system, was a "failure," according to the retired Judge charged with spearheading an investigation into the program.

On Friday, August 13, just two days after the Governor’s office refused to participate in a legislative inquiry into the program, the administration released its long-awaited internal investigation.

Former Judge David Erickson’s report, first commissioned in December, declared the Meritorious Good Time (MGT) Push program a failure and said the Quinn administration used the program as a means of reducing prison populations, rather than rewarding inmates for good behavior.

"...inmates had to do little or nothing to demonstrate ’meritorious’ conduct deserving MGT Credit awards and then, given the perceived irrevocability of MGT Credit, could do nothing to jeopardize their awards.

"Under MGT Push and under the old MGT program, inmates were labeled as ’meritorious’ simply by virtue of being delivered into DOC custody," the report said.

The release followed the first meeting of a special Illinois Joint Investigatory Panel on Early Release, formed by Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) and House Republican Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego).

The report prompted Radogno and Cross to again renew their request for the administration to testify before the panel. 

Former Judge David Erickson threw doubt onto past claims by Governor Quinn that he was unaware of the controversial "Meritorious Good Time Push" program that released hundreds of prisoners early, including some violent offenders.

Quinn has consistently claimed he was unaware of the program and immediately ordered its suspension once he learned of it.

But, during an August 13 press conference to announce the results of the investigation, Judge Erickson said "hundreds and hundreds and hundreds" of persons knew about the program, including "the people at work in the administration."

The revelation raised questions how Quinn could not have known that such a controversial program was being carried out by his own administration.

In discussing the use of the term "secret" to describe the early release program, Erickson said, "Well that’s just about the worst secret I ever heard... hundreds of people worked in the system and knew about it... 1,700 people were released. Their lawyers knew about it. They knew about it. Their families knew about it. The people at work in the administration knew about it...

"All I know is when more than one person knows something it’s not a secret and when hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people know, it’s certainly not a secret."

During a press conference on Friday,August 13, members of the Quinn administration once again leveled a misleading claim regarding funding for a new inmate tracking system at the Illinois Department of Corrections.

The administration has consistently tried to claim lawmakers have kept the Governor from upgrading computers needed at the Department of Corrections.

That prompted Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) to issue the following statement.

"In 2009, when the four legislative leaders and the Governor were negotiating a $30 billion capital measure, the Governor never once raised the issue of computers for the Department of Corrections. The Governor had substantial input into the projects identified in the capital measure and did not allocate or seek any funding for a computer system at the Department of Corrections.

"In last year’s operating budget, over $3 billion in discretionary lump sums were handed to the Governor to spend in any way he chose. Again this year, the Governor has a similar amount available for discretionary spending. In fact, this Governor has received more flexibility than any governor in the history of the state to allocate money any way he chooses.

"To suggest that legislators of either party have somehow prevented him from upgrading the prisoner tracking system at the Department of Corrections is just not true," Radogno said.

A Republican-initiated panel investigating a secret and controversial prisoner early release program turned into a bipartisan inquiry when three Democrat legislators joined the GOP panel in Peoria.

The Illinois Joint Investigatory Panel on Early Release held its first meeting Wednesday evening, August 11, in Peoria.  Republican senators Dale Risinger (Peoria) and Tim Bivins (Dixon) were joined by committee Co-Chair Representative Dennis Reboletti (R-Elmhurst), Representatives David Leitch (R-Peoria), Jim Durkin (R-Countryside), Jil Tracy (R-Quincy), and fellow lawmakers Sen. Dave Koehler (D-Peoria), Rep. Jehan Gordon (D-Peoria), Rep. Keith Sommer (R-Morton) and Rep. Mike Smith (D-Canton).

The panel selected Peoria, in part, because of the murder of a Peoria grandmother in May. The man accused of the crime had been a prisoner and participant in the controversial Meritorious Good Time-Push (MGT-Push) program.

The panel first offered a brief review of the history of the controversy, and recounted efforts dating back to January to obtain information about the ill-fated program. Although in December 2009 Quinn appointed former Judge David Erickson of the Cook County Circuit Court to conduct a review of release practices, that report still has not been released eight months later.

Sen. Risinger questioned why the report has not yet been released, noting the report would give officials a better understanding of, “what went wrong, why did it happen, how can we make corrections to it, how can we work forward and work through it.”

Among those testifying were local police and sheriffs, along with several crime victims and crime victim advocacy groups. All participants expressed concern over the implementation of the early release program, and urged officials to be more discriminatory when deciding which prisoners will receive early release.