Posted on 12/23/2007 8:25:49 AM PST by Graybeard58
The good news is that despite all of his bluster, Gov. Rod Blagojevich did not call lawmakers into special session in December.
Blagojevich reportedly was ready to do so Thursday, but he was finally convinced it would be another embarrassment when large numbers of lawmakers thumbed their noses at him five days before Christmas. Now, regular special sessions will resume Jan. 2.
The bad news is that lawmakers didn't meet in December. They whiffed on a chance to set a never-to-be-broken record for futility by meeting in every single month of 2007.
Oh, well, there's always next year.
What's it about?
There was a hearing last week in Springfield on the special sessions lawsuit. That's the one in which Blagojevich is suing House Speaker Michael Madigan because Madigan doesn't order that House special sessions start at the exact times ordered by the governor.
The hearing wasn't very exciting, but it did result in a quote of the week from William Quinlan, Blagojevich's general counsel, who said the lawsuit is about gubernatorial powers.
"It's not about Rod Blagojevich. It's not about Michael Madigan," Quinlan said.
That's a good one.
"Since 1818, your client has had more special sessions than all others (governors). There is nothing special about special sessions," said Sangamon County Circuit Judge Leo Zappa, making an observation to Quinlan during the hearing.
School funding
When the lawsuit was filed in August, Blagojevich's lawyers listed several reasons why Madigan should be ordered to do what the governor tells him to do. Among these heinous problems was that the House hadn't passed a budget implementation bill (called a BIMP) for education at the time Madigan told House members to go home and ignore the governor's calls for more special sessions.
Until the BIMP bill passed, schools couldn't collect the extra money lawmakers had put in the new state budget for education, the lawsuit noted. In other words, Bad Mikey was hurting schools by not calling the House into session and passing the BIMP.
Since then, both the House and Senate have passed that education BIMP bill and sent it to Blagojevich on Nov. 5. It's been sitting on his desk ever since. Schools still aren't getting their extra money because Blagojevich hasn't signed the bill. Moreover, Blagojevich has made noises that he's going to rewrite that BIMP bill. That's his prerogative, but it also means further delays in schools getting their money.
So much for the idea that Madigan is to blame for holding up extra money for schools. Maybe Blagojevich should sue himself.
Taxing business
The Associated Press did a story raising the prospect that Blagojevich might owe income taxes for those rides he takes between Springfield and Chicago on a state airplane. It comes down to whether the flights are considered official business or could be interpreted as personal travel, in which case taxes would be owed.
Tax lawyers can (and probably will) argue that point for years, but the story did result in the Blagojevich administration publicly admitting what most of the state has long known - the governor doesn't consider Springfield to be all that pivotal in the scheme of state government.
"We define the principal place of business as Chicago," Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said in response to the story. That would make the flights official business and not taxable.
"Place of business" is an excellent choice of words. Had Ottenhoff said Chicago is Blagojevich's place of work, it would have opened up another whole area of debate.
Seat of government
Not that you were wondering, but Springfield as the center of state government is more than just a quaint concept. It's a matter of state law.
If you go to those massive books called the Illinois Compiled Statutes, you will find a section called the "Seat of State Government Act." It states "that the seat of government shall continue to be at Springfield, in the County of Sangamon, at which place all acts shall be done which are required to be done at the seat of government." Clear? It goes on to say that some other place can be designated the seat of government by the governor "when it is necessary in consequence of pestilence or public danger."
That raises another question: Since Blagojevich has been governor, has Springfield been in a state of pestilence or public danger?
Still thankful we don’t get all the government we pay for in Illinois.
Look for the next governor to be Lisa Madigan
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