Home Alone

ArchPundit March 15, 2005 No Comments

It appears Central Management Services has left the state agencies home alone accounting for savings from CMS

The so-called savings were supposed to correspond to efficiency devolving from CMS, which now manages contracts and facilities previously handled by individual agencies. But the individual agencies had trouble identifying savings that trickled down to them.

So, money was kicked back that couldn’t be specifically tagged to a saving. It just had to be kicked back regardless of where it came.

This leads to this line:

His audits said “the use of appropriations for purposes other than those authorized by the General Assembly effectively negates a fundamental control established in state government.”

Actually, that understates the case, but auditors are the masters of the understatement.

Unfortunately, the audits are not available on-line.

Those Crazy Kids….

ArchPundit March 11, 2005 6 Comments

Da Speaker suggests Blagorgeous give back the kit and caboodle.

“We played by the rules,” said Cheryle Jackson, Blagojevich’s spokeswoman.

But this is the problem. The Governor has repeated the mantra of changing business as usual ad nauseum and he so damn good at staying on message, none of us can forget it.

He ran on a platform of reform and repeated and repeated it and when anyone challenged them he put them on the side of being against reform.

You don’t think Madigan didn’t have a twinkle in his eye when he said it thinking about how many veiled shots the Governor took at him?

I’m willing to give the Governor a shot at further campaign reform and not be overly cynical about his motives, but he put it on the table and now people are saying yes when he wasn’t ready to accept yes.

He needs to face the fact that he won the campaign. Now he has to govern.

And Cross is right, you can’t keep the money and change the rules in the middle of the cycle. You can give state contractor money back and change the rules or you can keep the money and change the rules for December of 2006. But you set the agenda of reform and the first answer is going to make people a lot less cynical.

Madigan Blagojevich Analysis

ArchPundit March 8, 2005 No Comments

IlPundit covers the gamesmanship between the two and offers a couple possibilities of what Madigan might be maneuvering to do based on Operation Cobra. It’s a great story and good analysis.

Never, Ever Use an Agnew Line Like That

ArchPundit March 5, 2005 No Comments

When the press as a whole just hates you, laying a line on them that reminds them of the corrupt and soon then to resign Vice President Agnew is not exactly the manner in which to get in their good graces.

And the natural comparison it draws…ummm…there are times when the Governor shows incredible political skills–and then other times you want to ask him where he gets the good crack.

If it had been Thompson, they’d be having a beer and Chambers would be wilting (no offense to Chambersw, but pretty much everyone wilted). Even the sarcastic Edgar had a way of easing tension and not exaggerating it.

But an Agnew line?

ARRRRGGGHHHHHHH….

ArchPundit February 18, 2005 No Comments

If I thought he knew about me, I’d swear he’s trying to tweak me lately,

Blagojevich vows to veto any income tax increase for education

CHICAGO (AP) ? Gov. Rod Blagojevich has said he would veto any school-funding reforms if they included increasing income taxes because he’s not convinced raising income taxes would solve inequities in state school funding.

“I’ll veto any bill that raises the income tax in whatever form,” the Democratic governor told the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board Thursday.

Just asking, but isn’t whether the inequities are addressed a detail that should be part of the consideration? Instead of saying that you are against any increase, how about setting out specific conditions under which you would accept such an increase–one of those being that it actually solves inequities….

Another conditions could be that such an increase is revenue neutral.

Via Ralph

Just Shut Him Up

ArchPundit February 18, 2005 No Comments

What everyone seems to have missed is the Blagojevich starve the beast argument that is damn near reminiscent of Grover Norquist:

“He said to me, ‘Well, don’t you want the revenue?’ And I said, ‘Frankly, no’,” Blagojevich said. “It’s going to get in the way of the kinds of things that we want to do. We’ll never get the cuts in some of the places we want to get cuts. We won’t be able to downsize where we want to downsize. We won’t be able to make a lot of the hard decisions that I think are necessary to get the budgets in a better position.”

The problem is that the cuts are endangering public lands, continuing the problem in public education and avoiding dealing with a problem that hasn’t fully hit Illinois as it has other states: Medicaid and CHIP.

I’ll give you a way to demagogue on the issue and still deal with funding–dedicate funding, document the amounts and whenever anyone tries to divert it, have a press conference about it. But insisting that further funding is the problem (a separable issue from gaming expansion in many ways) doesn’t work at those problems.

To the credit of the administration–there is a line that says they are thinking about management issues:

Deputy governor Bradley Tusk said the administration had examined structures of similar boards in other states, including the possibility of a full-time paid board. The “unfortunate answer,” he said, is “there’s no system that seems to work any better.”

Comparative studies are great and I’m all for them–they are good for business after all (my business for those who don’t get the joke), but you have to have a functioning board in the meantime.

About those Benchmarks, Governor

ArchPundit February 7, 2005 No Comments

As someone who does policy evaluation, I’m a big fan of benchmarks to determine how effective something is being implemented.

Right now, the Gov Gets an F

Via OneMan

Perhaps one reason for a change of heart is the lack of legislative success that followed last year’s education focus, where he held up a sheaf of 2,800 pages he said represented the state’s burdensome school regulations. The legislature gave him only modest powers to reshape that bureaucracy.

Six months after he gained control of the board, not a page of regulations has been removed, and the staff he ridiculed has been trimmed by only three people, to 492 from 495.

You only get to claim credit when you’ve done something.

Line of the State of the State

ArchPundit February 7, 2005 2 Comments

From McQueary

This year, Madigan announced that Gov. Rod Blagojevich wished to be invited ? to which a comedian on the Republican side of the aisle shouted, “Roll call!”

“a total process guy” “We’re not experts”

ArchPundit February 7, 2005 No Comments

Okay, that’s a media campaign right there against the Governor. Tusk was quoted in relation to Hynes cancelling the contract for vaccine as saying Hynes is “a total process guy”

To which, Hynes responded appropriately:

Hynes responded in an interview printed Thursday in the Springfield State Journal-Register: “To admit you’re not very good at the process means you’re not very good at governing … Governing is not his strong suit.”

In democracy, the process is also the result and in this case, the result desired was admirable–to provide adequate flu vaccine to the citizens of Illinois.

However, another part of the process is ensuring that when there is a question of whether the vaccine can be provided in time, that the taxpayers aren’t being taken to the cleaner.

It’s a simple point and one that should be covered in the discussions–what is the downside and how do we protect against a worst case scenario?

Clearly that didn’t happen.

But lots of things aren’t happening. In dealing with Caremark over how much is being spent in relation to state employees and prescription drugs, the Blagojevich administration is backing the provider in Caremark’s bid to keep its prices secret from the public.

What’s unusual in this case is that Caremark, which has given $4,500 to Blagojevich’s campaign fund, argues that even its prices are trade secrets. The state’s administrative department says it has reviewed the company’s position and agrees.

“While I understand and appreciate your concern … we believe the information is legally exempt from disclosure,” Michael Rumman, director of the state Department of Central Management Services, wrote to the lawmakers on Jan. 4.

Department spokesman Willy Medina said the state is taking bids on a new contract and will include a requirement that the pricing information be released to the public.

Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said the governor has no opinion on the issue beyond hoping that a judge follows the “spirit of the law” when deciding whether the information can be disclosed.

“We’re not experts in intellectual property law,” Ottenhoff said.

But they are experts on changing the way business is done. And this is unusual, but not in the way one typically thinks of it not being business as usual.

It’s one thing to keep costs of each prescription hidden, but not identifying what one is charging to customers is ridiculous and it creates a significant problem for oversight as the Lege members are pointing out.

Changing the way business is done means making the process more open, not protecting state contractors.

Ahem, Are We Not Filing Contracts on Time?

ArchPundit February 3, 2005 No Comments

Via Capitol Fax is a story from the Washington Times about Hynes refusing to pay the bill for flu vaccines that were never imported (though the last few days everyone in my family have been wishing they had).

But the fascinating bit to me is this:

The signed contract with Ecosse didn’t reach the comptroller’s office until Jan. 24, and with flu season half over. Hynes wants to know why the deal was signed.

Under law, contracts are supposed to be submitted within 30 days. So does that mean the contract was signed between Christmas and the 24th? I doubt it.

Most likely it’s a continuing issue of contracts being submitted late as was documented in December in the Register-Star by Aaron Chambers.