Governor Quinn putting some thought into issues, but getting them mixed up

With Illinois government officials these days in a mode of wanting to undo just about anything associated with Rod Blagojevich, it is nice to see that Gov. Pat Quinn is not giving knee-jerk approval to everything put forth.

Quinn took a stance this week on at least two matters that were high-profile Blagojevich decisions during his six years as governor. On one, he undid Blagojevich.

BUT ON THE other, he’s inclined to agree with Milorod.

The two issues involved Blagojevich’s attempt to curry favor with senior citizens by declaring that everybody over age 65 qualifies for free rides on public transit systems across the state (my mother would qualify, if she ever got around to applying for the special permit needed to actually use the system).

But one of Blagojevich’s attempts at cutting state spending was to shut down seven of the state parks located in rural parts of the state, which also are among the few attractions that get people from around Illinois and the United States to actually consider visiting those communities.

Quinn on Wednesday signed an order that re-opened those state parks. But on Friday, he told reporter-types that he would reject any measure approved by the General Assembly to repeal the free rides for senior citizens.

HE THINKS GIVING the elderly residents of the state who may depend more heavily on mass transit if they’re no longer capable of driving an automobile a financial break is a worthy goal.

Now on the latter matter, I think the General Assembly is going overboard. It is going to be like the Legislature’s behavior back in 1997-98. Those were the two years following the two-year period in which the Republican Party’s officials controlled every single state government office of significance.

When Democrats regained control in the Illinois House of Representatives, they insisted on trying to pass bills repealing every politically partisan measure the GOP-led Legislature enacted into law.

Admittedly, the Illinois Supreme Court wound up striking down the most draconian of those measures. But it got silly watching the Legislature engage in a whole batch of actions whose purpose seemed to be to re-write history.

AFTER ALL, IF the GOP-desired “laws” were no longer on the books, perhaps we could pretend that the whole Republican Domination of Illinois government never happened.

That seems to be the same mode of thought these days for legislators – Let’s Pretend Blagojevich Never Happened!

Well, he did, and it can’t be erased, even if legislators maintain their stubbornness and refuse to let him hang his official portrait in the Statehouse’s Hall of Governors.

But this might be one area where there ought to be some sort of change. After all, it’s not like every senior citizen will use mass transit – even though in the Chicago area, the Chicago Transit Authority, Metra commuter trains and Pace suburban buses gave about 25 million rides to older people during the past year.

SOME SENIOR CITIZENS probably can use the perk. But there is some room for change. I’d hate to see Quinn react improperly just because he’d like to get the votes of elder residents (and registered voters) when he likely runs for election to his own term as governor in 2010.

At a time when mass transit in the Chicago area fears a revenue shortfall for the current year, I’d hate to think partisan politics were getting thrown into the mix on this issue.

Meanwhile, I have to wonder if Quinn should have so eagerly re-opened those state parks. That action also seems politically motivated – he wants the votes of those rural Illinois residents who believe that Blagojevich was too Chicago-oriented (foolish people) for their tastes.

That is what caused the state parks such as Illini at Marsailles, Hidden Springs State Forest in Strasburg, Moraine View in Leroy, Weldon Springs in Clinton, Wolf Creek in Windsor, and Castle Creek and Lowdon in Oregon to be re-opened – effective Thursday.

NOW I CAN understand the need to make a gesture to rural Illinois, which felt snubbed by Blagojevich in so many ways (including the non-issue of his refusal to live with his wife and two young daughters full-time in the Executive Mansion).

But I can’t help but wonder if this was an issue that should have been held off on until the upcoming fiscal year, which begins in July. At a time when the state is trying to figure out how to plug a $9 billion budget shortfall, every single dollar matters. Reopening these parks now will cost money from the current state budget.

This might have been an issue where action could have been held off. Those people who feel the need to venture into the rural Illinois take on Mother Nature could just as easily do so come July or August as in March or April.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: Perhaps Pat Quinn should reverse his actions – allow some changes in free mass transit fares (http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/02/quinn-wont-take-away-free-bus-and-train-rides-for-seniors.html) while letting some state parks (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-quinn-reopens-state-parks-27feb27,0,7642727.story) remain shuttered for a few more months.

I don’t have any problem with Quinn’s decision to change state practices and NOT put his (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-tollway-signs-27-feb27,0,116294.story) name on every public sign in sight.

Illinois' issue not a Chicago concern (but it should be). Yes, it should

If the proposed budget cuts put forth by Gov. Rod Blagojevich take effect Oct. 1, this historic site is one that will no longer be accessible to the public. Photograph provided by State of Illinois.

It’s the political controversy that is rocking Illinois, yet most people in Chicago and the surrounding area could care less about.

It is Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s attempt to reduce state government spending, in part by cutting the amount of access to which the residents of this state have to its various historic site.

PART OF THE governor’s spending reduction plan called for cutting the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency’s budget by $2.8 million for the ongoing fiscal year that run through June 30, 2009.

To achieve that lesser level of spending, the agency is going to have to lay off some of its employees – many of whom are the tour guides who work at the various historic sites. That will result in many sites being closed to the public much of the time, and some sites will be open so infrequently that it raises the question of why bother to keep them open.

This is a controversy – once one gets outside of the six Illinois counties that comprise the Chicago area. To the people of rural Illinois, this is an attack on some of the few assets they have within their boundaries.

When it comes to trying to attract tourism dollars, these historic sites are the few things they have going for them. What else is there to see, if not for the many Lincoln-related sites in central Illinois, and some of the places in central and Southern Illinois whose natural beauty serves as an attraction.

WHAT GOOD IS having a state park in or near your community, if it is not open for people to visit?

That issue is what caused about 50 protesters to gather outside the Executive Mansion in Springfield on Saturday. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the labor union that represents many of the tour guides who work at the historic sites, say they plan to hold many similar stunts in coming weeks to get the public even more outraged with Blagojevich than they already were.

Yet the problem is that these sites, while scattered across a large swath of Illinois, do not fall within the Chicago area. So the portion of the state that accounts for about two-thirds of Illinois’ population is not directly affected.

That makes it very easy for many of us in the Second City to ignore the affair. On the surface, it doesn’t affect us, so why should we worry?

I’M SURE ON a certain level, that logic is what made it possible for Blagojevich, in his mind, to justify the cuts.

The problem is that those sites are not purely local attractions. In fact, many of them make the perfect quickie vacation locations for those of us Chicagoans who want to make a daylong car trip outside the city, but don’t particularly feel like venturing into southern Wisconsin or that bi-state region on the other side of Lake Michigan known as Michiana.

In all, the layoffs of 75 historic preservation employees will result in the closing of 12 historic sites and 11 state parks. These cuts are on top of the fact that all state historic sites this summer started closing two days per week to save some money.

While state officials have tried to downplay those cuts by saying the seven-day schedule will resume in spring 2009, the fact that some are being closed outright makes one skeptical that anything will ever be fully restored to its former public access.

WHAT MAKES IT particularly sad is that sites including the Old State Capitol and Lincoln/Herndon Law Office in Springfield, along with Lincoln’s Tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery and the New Salem state park near Petersburg all are among those sites to be reduced.

It comes at a time when there is a national effort to pay tribute to the memory of Abraham Lincoln in the months prior to the 200th anniversary of his Feb. 12, 1809 birth date.

It is a time when the states of the Midwest and places in Washington are supposed to be working together to improve access to the Lincoln-related sites.

Yet at a time when Kentucky is boasting of the fact that Lincoln was born in their state and Indiana brags of how he was raised there, Illinois – the state where he lived his adult life and established his political experience that enabled him to become president in the 1860 elections – is cutting back.

WHILE I AM the first to concede that the state can’t spend money it doesn’t have, this just seems the wrong time to get shortsighted about Illinois history.

I’m a Chicago-born guy who has kept going back and forth from the city during his life. I have seen some of these sites to be affected up close, and they rival the most intriguing sites located within Chicago.

There’s a reason Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama keeps turning to the Old State Capitol, rather than Daley Plaza with the Picasso in the background, for his major campaign pronouncements.

Personally, the thought of the Dana-Thomas House (a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house near downtown Springfield) being shut down because somebody was shortsighted in their thought is particularly disappointing. It is a unique structure that rivals anything the famed architect did anywhere else in the world.

SO IF THE AFSCME officials (whose primary concern is not historic preservation, but maintaining state jobs for their members) and other activists really want to gain traction for their cause, they ought to be taking their fight to Chicago.

They have to come up here (perhaps to that very same Picasso statue) to make us Chicago residents realize that we, too, will suffer a loss if these cuts are allowed to take place. Heck, if they really wanted to get creative, they’d venture their way up to the Ravenswood neighborhood and picket outside the Blagojevich house.

Perhaps getting the neighbors to view the governor as something other than the guy who’s responsible for additional police protection on their block will cause Chicagoans to care about this issue.

For if Blagojevich is able to get away with these cuts by taking advantage of the lack of interest many of us Chicagoans have in the rest of Illinois, that would be wrong. If anything, it would give those downstaters more ammunition for their mental attacks when they argue that Chicago should be cut loose from the rest of the state.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: The first of what could be several protests related to downstate historic (http://www.sj-r.com/news/x1780973810/Cuts-at-historic-sites-protested) site funding cuts was held this weekend.

It’s more than just Illinois’ history that is being cut (http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2008/09/14/governors_budget_cuts_reach_beyond_closure_of_state_parks) with the upcoming cuts, which take effect Oct. 1 and Nov. 1.

The Illinois Senate could have voted on a measure that would have provided some emergency funding (http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=234432&src=109) to avert the historic (http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2008/09/14/opinion/133085.txt) site and state park cuts, but elected instead to hold off until mid-November before returning to Springfield to take any kind of action.