"Although Blagojevich bashed the spending, he could not name a single unworthy project when pressed by reporters."
Rich Miller
· 2 years ago
Jackson, the governor is using the capital plan to "grease" votes for his health insurance proposal. What's the difference?
Yellow Dog Democrat
· 2 years ago
Jackson - equipment purchases don't belong in a capital budget. Neither do minor renovations. Capital budgets are for construction.
Alex
· 2 years ago
In my district the member initiatives look like they are things that were pretty much needed except for one 300,000 pure pork handout. Looked them over and most look like they pass the smell test. Most, but not all.
jackson
· 2 years ago
Rich,
I am not saying I agree with that. But I would point out that they would be different bills. They are not stuck in together. They don't have to vote to include something unrelated to get what they want.
Rich Miller
· 2 years ago
===They don’t have to vote to include something unrelated to get what they want.===
What planet are you from?
Juice
· 2 years ago
I had no idea there was a town called Hometown. I wonder how they came up with that name?
jwscott72
· 2 years ago
Now the Governor is a fiscal conservative worried about "pork'? From largest tax increase in history to bribing state senators (I had forgotten about that) to nickle and diming the funding of fire stations and fixing sidewalks. Give me a break. Everyone should send flip-flops to his office.
jackson
· 2 years ago
Where's the full list?
Ghost
· 2 years ago
madigans use of item specifics to identify the spending lets the public see how many is being spent and covers my concenr with pork spending. Money spread out rationaly and proportianly throughtout the state benefits us all.
Then again, I still hold out a dream that the state will put in place the pork project of a high speed train running from spfld to chicago and st.louis.
The 'Broken Heart' of Rogers P
· 2 years ago
My eyes are red from looking through the 1300 odd pages, just to find what's in it for Osterman's (my) district. Looking at those, what seems like endless line items, are just plain mind-numbing to say the least....
Anonymous
· 2 years ago
Isn't this the same guy that gave $1,000,000 for a minor league ballpark on a whim?
Moderate Repub
· 2 years ago
Rich,
You nailed this one. DuPage, still think Rich is backing the Gov? Anyway, I don't know why the hypocracy bothers me SO much, you would think I would be used to it by now. To Jackson, so its ok to spread $400 million in so called pork around for brick and mortor projects that equal $10 billion, but not ok to spread around so called pork of $200 million on top of $59 billion for an operating budget? Everyone line items projects except for Blagos buddy the president of the senate, but thats ok to the Gov, who railed against it in his campaign, whatever. It will never end. 99% of pork are needed projects in communities that can't get the funding any other way. Pork is just a term used in campaigns to make people look bad. No one picked up the story about the faked signature of the IEA lobbiest by the Governors office?
Siyotanka
· 2 years ago
This just in...
Gov. Rod Blagojevich helped officially open the Illinois State Fair, but he only took one question from reporters because he said he had to get back to the Capitol to work on the budget.
Blagojevich says a proposed budget measure doesn't take care of health care and infrastructure needs. Versions of that budget proposal were passed Thursday by the House and Senate.
Blagojevich calls the proposal full of "pork, politics and false promises."
He says there is a long way to go before a budget is in place.
After cutting a ribbon to open the fair in Springfield, the governor said he had to return to work at the Capitol.
So Ill
· 2 years ago
Amen, Anon (although to be fair, that ballpark IS going to set a frontier league attendance record, and has generally been considered a success here so far).
Nobody's opinion
· 2 years ago
Does $1 million for Pilgrim Baptist Church not count as "pork?" I have no idea if the funding for the church destroyed by fire is actually written into the operating budget anywhere, I just find it contradictory. But therein lies no surprise. The governor has contradicted himself before. Would it be proper usage to say that it is in the zeitgeist of the Blagojevich administration?
Bonzo's Montreux
· 2 years ago
I believe it was George Ryan who said something along the lines of, if money is given to your district, it's a "necessary project." If money is given to someone else's district, it's "pork." If these very same projects for the very same amounts were in a budget that paid for Blago's beloved healthcare plan, he'd be praising them as "necessary projects." He didn't have a problem signing the last few years' budgets that had money for member projects in them.
Team Sleep
· 2 years ago
Pork will never go away. But we can limit it. Perhaps we need an amendment banning pork as an incentive to buy votes for a major legislative plan. One can hope.
Rogers, why do you think they do that? It's the best way to keep the voting public (and some reporters) from knowing what projects are funded and who gets what.
One who knows
· 2 years ago
I've seen some of the pork that's been processed in the last five years in Illinois, and I can attest to the fact that a lot of it does not pass the sniff test. Emil Jones' use of the lump sum line items allowed him to award prominant religious supportes with funding for their "daycare" programs or "after school arts" programs, when in reality, the funding went to pay for personnel, more specifically it went to his buddies. I agree that the infrastructure and emergency management grants are warranted and necessary, but when public funds are used to line the pockets of private organizations, that's where I draw the line.
steve schnorf
· 2 years ago
Private organizations such as Catholic Charities? Lutheran Family Services? Oh. the shame of it all!
All Comments
If they want projects for their district - infrastructure investments, and economic development - they need to pass a capital plan.
I see a difference.
I don't see a problem here with the Dems' position.
"Although Blagojevich bashed the spending, he could not name a single unworthy project when pressed by reporters."
I am not saying I agree with that. But I would point out that they would be different bills. They are not stuck in together. They don't have to vote to include something unrelated to get what they want.
What planet are you from?
Then again, I still hold out a dream that the state will put in place the pork project of a high speed train running from spfld to chicago and st.louis.
You nailed this one. DuPage, still think Rich is backing the Gov? Anyway, I don't know why the hypocracy bothers me SO much, you would think I would be used to it by now.
To Jackson, so its ok to spread $400 million in so called pork around for brick and mortor projects that equal $10 billion, but not ok to spread around so called pork of $200 million on top of $59 billion for an operating budget?
Everyone line items projects except for Blagos buddy the president of the senate, but thats ok to the Gov, who railed against it in his campaign, whatever. It will never end. 99% of pork are needed projects in communities that can't get the funding any other way. Pork is just a term used in campaigns to make people look bad.
No one picked up the story about the faked signature of the IEA lobbiest by the Governors office?
Gov. Rod Blagojevich helped officially open the Illinois State Fair, but he only took one question from reporters because he said he had to get back to the Capitol to work on the budget.
Blagojevich says a proposed budget measure doesn't take care of health care and infrastructure needs. Versions of that budget proposal were passed Thursday by the House and Senate.
Blagojevich calls the proposal full of "pork, politics and false promises."
He says there is a long way to go before a budget is in place.
After cutting a ribbon to open the fair in Springfield, the governor said he had to return to work at the Capitol.
Rogers, why do you think they do that? It's the best way to keep the voting public (and some reporters) from knowing what projects are funded and who gets what.