I told Proft yesterday it would be more appropriate to pay legislators as if they were state vendors. That way, their checks would be six months late.
Touchè, Rich.
Captain Flume
· 5 months ago
It might be more appropriate to pay legislators in direct proportion to the wealth of their districts. You get elected to represent a district around Glencoe, maybe you make a pretty good salary; you get elected to represent a district around Doulton or Harrisburg, maybe not so much. It might even color the way you vote for certain revenue and spending bills.
Scooby
· 5 months ago
CF are you suggesting we make legislative pay like education?
Capitol View
· 5 months ago
I'm still working on my proposal to designate Illinois state government a major automobile manufacturer or an investment house. The concept is to get us viewed by the feds as "too big to fail" and they come in with $12 billion to rescue us.
Ghost
· 5 months ago
Take that new jersey!!
TII!!
Captain Flume
· 5 months ago
==CF are you suggesting we make legislative pay like education? ==
Interesting consideration, isn't it? Except without grants that give a base minimum, and no extra stipends for leadership, chairmanships, etc. Somehow, though, I think that kind of compensation arrangement won't even see a hint of draft legislation at LRB, much less a sponsor.
Ghost
· 5 months ago
If you want to make a real impact, cut legislative pay by 75% if a balanaced budget is not in place by Sept 1 every year (end of lapse period)
Anita
· 5 months ago
Tamara di Selva graduated from the University of Chicago at age 16, and now she's doing property tax appeals? Something here makes no sense at all:
Anita
· 5 months ago
Here's from her web site. I guess Rich doesn't allow html codes?
Some guy pitches a game while playing for the White Sox and they call it "Perfect."
Not my idea of perfect.
The Doc
· 5 months ago
The Chicago GOP post in its entirety should be required reading. The paranoia and frustration oozes off the page, complete with an internet slap on the back in comments from none other than Fran Eaton. Good stuff.
Deep South
· 5 months ago
Looks like she graduated from law school at the age of 20.
Wumpus
· 5 months ago
If I were in the Board of Appeals, I'd want her around.
anon
· 5 months ago
RICH I AM AT HOME AND JUST SAW AN MSNBC NEWS UPDATE ABOUT BLAGOJEVICH'S BOOK AND THEY MENTIONED THE TAG WORDS ON AMAZON...."DELUSIONAL AND CRAZY"
Rich Miller
· 5 months ago
It's great that you're at home.
Could you turn off the caps lock, please? Thanks
Quinn T. Sential
· 5 months ago
{Walking back the dog)?
I think you may have glossed over this part too quickly:
{Commissioners have been investigating whether Froehlich used influence through Santana or anyone else to get tax breaks for businesses in Froehlich’s legislative district.}
Read that out lound to yourselves a couple of time and try to contain your laughter within rather than just exploding with laughter in an embarrasingly public display; especially of you are reading this on the train, or somewhere else where people can see you.
It's Thursday; and Boers and Bernstein are doing "WHO YOU CRAPPIN" at 5:00 p.m. live from McNally's, and I have to say there has got to be at least an honorable metnion nominee in this story for that program segment.
Raise your hand if you think that "Commissioners" actually have to investigate what was going on here with Santana; Froelich and company.
The "Commisioners" themselves are the one's that have been gaming the system at the Board of Review for decades; going back to when it was just the appointed Board of Tax Appeals with people like Harry Semrow and Wilson Frost. Don Erskine and Tom Lavin were the pre-cursors to the likes of people like Victor Santana, but his role is nothing more than the personification of history repeating itself in the Cook County property tax appeals scheme.
For a story to suggest that the "Commissioners" are somehow incredulous about this, and are conducting a comprehensive "investigation" to uncover what was happening there, and which they were otherwise in the dark on, could be worthy of a new Second City skit by the time this is over with.
CircularFiringSquad
· 5 months ago
Tell Proft we should pay legislators in Cicero PO contracts....about 200% over real value....he must be campaigning to take over the Blagoof sociopath mantle
There's a lot of irony in your statement there. Hehe.
Rich Miller
· 5 months ago
Actually, George, I think Mikva is right about that one.
George
· 5 months ago
I know. Just odd for him to bring it up at this time, considering the hard look you are giving him on his blago defense.
OT
· 5 months ago
Other Weirdness:
Chicago GOP can't spell Capitol Fax correctly.
Rich Miller
· 5 months ago
And they think I can control my father, which is the biggest hoot of all.
Mike Ins
· 5 months ago
ANITA -
Yes, very much the Doogie Howser of the legal world apparently, but it helps when you graduate U of C the same year you get your driver's license... What the hell?!
If you take a look at the profile, you will note that at some point between graduating U of C at age 16 and graduating law school at age 20 and practicing since age 21 she found time to work as a trader on the floor. Summer job? Or maybe that explains the year between graduation and when she actually was licensed as an attorney (1997 grad, 1998 license).
Cute dog though.
Cheswick
· 5 months ago
You'd think someone who graduated from college at age 16 could have at least graduated from law school by age 17. Maybe that's when she went to work on the floor of the NYSE or CBOT or wherever.
Seriously, I am sure Tamara is very smart and a very good lawyer. I can't imagine how she let her name get on those property tax cases.
Candellara
· 5 months ago
It looks like the Chicago GOP post bothers you, ahem, maybe a slight bit of truth?
Mike Ins
· 5 months ago
Cheswick -
Yes, busy day for the barrister... sun-times article today notes her questioning of Antoine Walker didnt get very far as she was defending, in criminal court, his alleged attacker...
From the sun-times...
"Cook County Judge Kenneth J. Wadas wouldn't let defendant Phillip Allison's attorney, R. Tamara De Silva grill Walker, sustaining most of the prosecutors' objections to De Silva's line of questioning."
... anyway, not to get too far afield, but lots of specialities and lots of newsworthy-ness for her today, apparently...
... as Rich said... "weirdness". ahem.
Funny Ed
· 5 months ago
"A surprisingly unimpressive person"
Hurt your feelings or funny?
Rich Miller
· 5 months ago
FE and Candarella, you think my feelings are hurt? Really? lol
Proft For Governor
· 5 months ago
David Ormsby offered Dan Proft a tutorial on financial matters in his blog post today. This is the same David Ormsby who used to work for Mike Madigan – the man chiefly responsible for our state’s economic crisis today.
The Chicago 9 and their acolytes have two stock responses to those who threaten their power: “It’s too complicated for a neophyte like you to understand†or “Shut up.†Dan got the daily double.
Mr. Ormsby suggests that the increased interest that Illinois bonds pay would be a financial boon to Illinois legislators. But he ignores the underlying reason for higher interest that any college freshman would understand: higher interest correlates with higher risk.
Does Mr. Ormsby think, in our current fiscal and economic climate, that a politician would accept as payment a bond that pays a high rate of interest, but also has a high probability of default? Do the people who issue these bonds truly believe that they will be redeemed at full value? If so, let’s put it to the test.
The point is to tie legislators to the long-term financial stability of the state. While we’re at it, let’s pay their pensions in state bonds as well. Only when our political class understands that their own retirement depends on their stewardship of their constituents’ retirement will we begin to get meaningful reform.
Illinois’ credit degradation follows its political degradation. We are now positioned at the low end of investment quality. The recent actions of the General Assembly confirm that Illinois’ governing class suffers from this fiscal shortcoming, derived from their inherent disconnect with the consequences of their reckless actions. The downgrade essentially confirms this recklessness. Which is why we need a new turn-around team in place. Investors just might find our state bonds, and our state itself, a bargain with a high probability for appreciation.
Proft For Governor
Cindy Lou
· 5 months ago
It's going to be a loooong six months.
Arthur Andersen
· 5 months ago
CFS, not sure what a "Cicero PO" is, but I agree with George that your post about overpriced flacking is wildly ironic.
Cap'n Fax in the back pocket of the Illinois Democratic Party? That's the best joke I've heard today!
47th Ward
· 5 months ago
===Do the people who issue these bonds truly believe that they will be redeemed at full value?===
Why yes, yes they do. But more importantly, the bond buyers believe it too. Because never in the history of general obligation bond financing has a state NOT paid full value. It’s guaranteed in the bond agreements, which are enforced by our courts. And you'd think a candidate for governor would understand something so basic.
Ormsby and others have already pants’d Proft about this very basic finance 101 concept. Yet his “Profit from Governing™†campaign response repeats this already refuted, nonsensical point.
Speaking of weirdness, all of this new-found attention from the “Profit from Governing™†campaign must be kind of flattering Rich.
P.
· 5 months ago
Did anyone else check out de Silva's law firm's "images" page? What the ... ? Weird.
Cross didn't put party over state... he stuck to his guns... Not many Republicans want more taxes
wordslinger
· 5 months ago
No matter your politics, there's no reason to question whether a state will pay on its GO bond. Lot of history, and they always pay, come rain or come shine.
Here's the deal: bonds get paid first. Plenty of what they call "coverage" to take care of the juice and principle.
Everybody else? They get paid manana. Or whenever we have it. Or whenever.
Lynn S
· 5 months ago
So I clicked around on Ms. de Silva's website, and now I have more questions. Is it really a good idea to post your attorney number on your website for the whole world to see? And your birth year?
With the background she alleges to have, why is she doing property tax appeals? Is it possible this is a case of stolen professional identity? In short, do the signatures on the bottom of the property tax forms match other known signatures of Ms. de Silva?
IL observer
· 5 months ago
Take heart Rich, the Chicago GOP is already being sued for slander/libel because of that sewer they operate. It's a wonder they don't already have dozens of suits pending against them. It's a bunch of reckless nobodies who are embarrassing the GOP.
And there is a reason why the Illinois Review is known as the Crossroads of the Enabler Community. Any GOP incumbent gets cover, no matter how dishonest. Everyone knows for example there are GOP votes for another tax increase (in addition to the one they already passed this year). Jim Durkin for one said so on Chicago Tonight a few weeks ago.
David Ormsby
· 5 months ago
Actually, one state has defaulted on its general obligation bonds - Mississippi - 1838. That's it.
Proft needs a tutorial from someone.
Ready to rumble
· 5 months ago
"Only one state has defaulted on its general obligation bonds"
Let's take this at their word. Why don't we increase the Illinois debt-load four or five or six times. According to David, it's impossible for a state to default, so why don't just pay all our vendors and all our bills by increasing the debt? Why don't we just build that high-speed, mono-rail right now? Why wouldn't that work?
Look at Orange county's history, or check out Detroit today, or California today. When the spending class outspends its tax base, it's very easy to default. Mike Madigan and his Democrat buddies are ignoring the balance budget requirement of the state constitution and bringing us nearer and nearer bankruptcy, which is why the ratings agencies have downgraded IL bonds.
David, that's finance 101.
Rich Miller
· 5 months ago
R2R, you need to move beyond 101 classes.
wordslinger
· 5 months ago
Ready, states cannot declare bankruptcy, unlike municipalities. It's not an option.
The state has any number of means to cure it's structural deficit, but the GA has chosen not to do so.
California is in a different category all together. It's so tied up in knots with citizen initiative mandates that its virtually paralyzed.
Fitch, in its Illinois downgrade, of course, did not mention bankruptcy. Read the report. Fitch would not have downgraded the state if Quinn's tax increase had passed.
Is that what you wanted?
CATO
· 4 months ago
Weirdness or ad hominem attacks aside what about the facts here? Isn’t it a fact that all three Commissioners raise tens of thousands of dollars in donations from the lawyers who plead cases before the same Commissioners? Is there not a manifest conflict of interest, or even the appearance of a conflict, when Commissioners decide cases argued by their biggest donors? Or can we think that it is only legislators and aldermen who are influenced by large campaign contributions? It does not appear that the BOR takes any steps to ensure that the real estate tax attorneys that make campaigns donations to each of the Commissioners do not receive preferential treatment? Many politically influential law firms have huge real estate tax appeal practices? Many of them have made substantial contributions to one or other of the 3 Commissioners? Are we missing the point here or does no one care about the real issues?
CATO
· 4 months ago
What about the fact that under IL statute the Commissioners cannot have any other employment than at the BOR? Does Larry Rogers have a law practice? Isnt another one a lobbyist? Do the other 2 Commissioners have outside jobs? Aren’t the taxpayers subsidizing all this?
All Comments
Touchè, Rich.
TII!!
Interesting consideration, isn't it? Except without grants that give a base minimum, and no extra stipends for leadership, chairmanships, etc. Somehow, though, I think that kind of compensation arrangement won't even see a hint of draft legislation at LRB, much less a sponsor.
http://www.desilvalaw.com/firmprofile.jsp
Some guy pitches a game while playing for the White Sox and they call it "Perfect."
Not my idea of perfect.
Could you turn off the caps lock, please? Thanks
I think you may have glossed over this part too quickly:
{Commissioners have been investigating whether Froehlich used influence through Santana or anyone else to get tax breaks for businesses in Froehlich’s legislative district.}
Read that out lound to yourselves a couple of time and try to contain your laughter within rather than just exploding with laughter in an embarrasingly public display; especially of you are reading this on the train, or somewhere else where people can see you.
It's Thursday; and Boers and Bernstein are doing "WHO YOU CRAPPIN" at 5:00 p.m. live from McNally's, and I have to say there has got to be at least an honorable metnion nominee in this story for that program segment.
Raise your hand if you think that "Commissioners" actually have to investigate what was going on here with Santana; Froelich and company.
The "Commisioners" themselves are the one's that have been gaming the system at the Board of Review for decades; going back to when it was just the appointed Board of Tax Appeals with people like Harry Semrow and Wilson Frost. Don Erskine and Tom Lavin were the pre-cursors to the likes of people like Victor Santana, but his role is nothing more than the personification of history repeating itself in the Cook County property tax appeals scheme.
For a story to suggest that the "Commissioners" are somehow incredulous about this, and are conducting a comprehensive "investigation" to uncover what was happening there, and which they were otherwise in the dark on, could be worthy of a new Second City skit by the time this is over with.
Judge Mikva continuing to have Blago's back?
There's a lot of irony in your statement there. Hehe.
Chicago GOP can't spell Capitol Fax correctly.
Yes, very much the Doogie Howser of the legal world apparently, but it helps when you graduate U of C the same year you get your driver's license... What the hell?!
If you take a look at the profile, you will note that at some point between graduating U of C at age 16 and graduating law school at age 20 and practicing since age 21 she found time to work as a trader on the floor. Summer job? Or maybe that explains the year between graduation and when she actually was licensed as an attorney (1997 grad, 1998 license).
Cute dog though.
Seriously, I am sure Tamara is very smart and a very good lawyer. I can't imagine how she let her name get on those property tax cases.
Yes, busy day for the barrister... sun-times article today notes her questioning of Antoine Walker didnt get very far as she was defending, in criminal court, his alleged attacker...
From the sun-times...
"Cook County Judge Kenneth J. Wadas wouldn't let defendant Phillip Allison's attorney, R. Tamara De Silva grill Walker, sustaining most of the prosecutors' objections to De Silva's line of questioning."
... anyway, not to get too far afield, but lots of specialities and lots of newsworthy-ness for her today, apparently...
... as Rich said... "weirdness". ahem.
Hurt your feelings or funny?
The Chicago 9 and their acolytes have two stock responses to those who threaten their power: “It’s too complicated for a neophyte like you to understand†or “Shut up.†Dan got the daily double.
Mr. Ormsby suggests that the increased interest that Illinois bonds pay would be a financial boon to Illinois legislators. But he ignores the underlying reason for higher interest that any college freshman would understand: higher interest correlates with higher risk.
Does Mr. Ormsby think, in our current fiscal and economic climate, that a politician would accept as payment a bond that pays a high rate of interest, but also has a high probability of default? Do the people who issue these bonds truly believe that they will be redeemed at full value? If so, let’s put it to the test.
The point is to tie legislators to the long-term financial stability of the state. While we’re at it, let’s pay their pensions in state bonds as well. Only when our political class understands that their own retirement depends on their stewardship of their constituents’ retirement will we begin to get meaningful reform.
Illinois’ credit degradation follows its political degradation. We are now positioned at the low end of investment quality. The recent actions of the General Assembly confirm that Illinois’ governing class suffers from this fiscal shortcoming, derived from their inherent disconnect with the consequences of their reckless actions. The downgrade essentially confirms this recklessness. Which is why we need a new turn-around team in place. Investors just might find our state bonds, and our state itself, a bargain with a high probability for appreciation.
Proft For Governor
Cindy Lou, you are soooo right.
Why yes, yes they do. But more importantly, the bond buyers believe it too. Because never in the history of general obligation bond financing has a state NOT paid full value. It’s guaranteed in the bond agreements, which are enforced by our courts. And you'd think a candidate for governor would understand something so basic.
Ormsby and others have already pants’d Proft about this very basic finance 101 concept. Yet his “Profit from Governing™†campaign response repeats this already refuted, nonsensical point.
Speaking of weirdness, all of this new-found attention from the “Profit from Governing™†campaign must be kind of flattering Rich.
http://www.desilvalaw.com/Images.jsp
Here's the deal: bonds get paid first. Plenty of what they call "coverage" to take care of the juice and principle.
Everybody else? They get paid manana. Or whenever we have it. Or whenever.
With the background she alleges to have, why is she doing property tax appeals? Is it possible this is a case of stolen professional identity? In short, do the signatures on the bottom of the property tax forms match other known signatures of Ms. de Silva?
And there is a reason why the Illinois Review is known as the Crossroads of the Enabler Community. Any GOP incumbent gets cover, no matter how dishonest. Everyone knows for example there are GOP votes for another tax increase (in addition to the one they already passed this year). Jim Durkin for one said so on Chicago Tonight a few weeks ago.
Proft needs a tutorial from someone.
Let's take this at their word. Why don't we increase the Illinois debt-load four or five or six times. According to David, it's impossible for a state to default, so why don't just pay all our vendors and all our bills by increasing the debt? Why don't we just build that high-speed, mono-rail right now? Why wouldn't that work?
Look at Orange county's history, or check out Detroit today, or California today. When the spending class outspends its tax base, it's very easy to default. Mike Madigan and his Democrat buddies are ignoring the balance budget requirement of the state constitution and bringing us nearer and nearer bankruptcy, which is why the ratings agencies have downgraded IL bonds.
David, that's finance 101.
The state has any number of means to cure it's structural deficit, but the GA has chosen not to do so.
California is in a different category all together. It's so tied up in knots with citizen initiative mandates that its virtually paralyzed.
Fitch, in its Illinois downgrade, of course, did not mention bankruptcy. Read the report. Fitch would not have downgraded the state if Quinn's tax increase had passed.
Is that what you wanted?
http://rtamaradesilva.wordpress.com/