Getting myself in a bit of a lather, I forgot the rest of the stories at the Capitol Fax
First, Exelon makes public their plan for rate hikes. Paging Pat Quinn–remember the one thing you were useful for was ranting about monopolies. Have someone take the muzzle off and remind G-Rod he is a Democrat.
In an amusing element of pot-kettle politics, the state GOP is proposing:
NEW "SHADOW" LANGUAGE EMERGES (excerpt) The Senate Republicans have unveiled new language to more clearly define what they call Governor Blagojevich’s "shadow government." The SGOPs want to use the ethics bill to force the governor’s unpaid advisors who work on legislation and other matters on his behalf to file economic interest statements.
The introduced version of the bill would require the disclosure of any "third party" contacts of a state board or commission on behalf of the guv or other elected official. The Senate Republicans would require that, in addition to the contact disclosure, the third party file economic interest statements.
Perhaps that could include the Mayer lawyers that each party utilizes free to analyze legislation? I mean, if you are going to go after the Guv, shouldn’t the spotlight go out to all of the cockroaches in Springfield?
Three other stories are pretty self-explanatory. Though a particular one towards the bottom is a perfect example of what is wrong in Springfield,
CREDIT UNIONS FURIOUS During the spring session, Illinois credit unions were strong-armed into agreeing to a deal that increased their state regulatory fees by 50 percent. One of the arguments the governor’s office used was that the banks would be whacked with a 100 percent fee increase during the rulemaking process. The credit unions could either swallow a 50 percent hike that was written into legislation, or suffer the same fate as the banks when the rules were written. The credit unions swallowed hard.
But, lo and behold, when the rules were published, the banks only suffered a 27 percent increase – about a quarter of the original amount, and half of what the credit unions were paying. Word is, the bankers informed the governor that if he went ahead with a 100 percent hike, they’d drop their state charters and become nationally chartered. The credit unions are hoping to roll back their fee hike during the veto session.
That story is appropriately from Halloween.