So much for pension funding reform this fall, gay marriage likely the miracle

There are those people who argued that the Illinois Legislature had no business contemplating measures to make marriage between gay couples legal – how dare they do anything other than try to resolve the problems confronting the state from pension funding problems!

Legislature soon to return for pension reform?

Of course, that’s a nonsense argument. Any public official worth a salt ought to be capable of addressing multiple issues at once. If they can’t, we ought to dump them in next year’s election cycle.

BUT I AM aware that our legislators – while capable of acting – often are not the most inspired of individuals. They don’t like to be bothered with more than one thing at a time.

Which means the passage of gay marriage on Tuesday probably means we’re not getting pension funding reform any time this week – the General Assembly’s fall veto session ends Thursday. No, I'm not overly impressed by the Illinois House action Wednesday that approved a measure altering the pension program for the Chicago Park District retired employees. It's so far from the overall solution.

Of course, even if the gay marriage issue had lingered on and on, it was unlikely the Legislature would have gotten around to pension funding – even if those Senate members of the committee trying to negotiate a deal did say on WTTW-TV’s “Chicago Tonight” program they thought action was possible.

I did find it interesting that House Democratic aides were saying a vote on the issue could come before the Legislature begins 2014 – which would mean a special session.

EVERYBODY RETURNING TO the Statehouse for one day of sitting around, waiting for the moment when they will be asked to vote “aye” on a plan to reduce the amount of state money that has to go toward paying for pension obligations.
 

Did gay marriage approval ...

Likely, somebody will have an objection to that plan – no matter what it is – and will file a lawsuit. Which means it will be years before this issue is truly resolved.

And if, by chance, it turns out that the Legislature’s actions are struck down by the courts, then we get to go through all of this again!

We did, of course, have the Legislature try to vote on this issue back in the spring – only to have the state Senate vote in favor of its version of a reform plan, and the Illinois House backing what it considered to be adequate reform.

GIVING TRUTH TO the old cliché about how perhaps Illinois, not just Chicago, “ain’t ready for reform.”

... really squeeze out pension reform?

Now I doubt most people really comprehend what the difference was between the plans, or even what the proposed compromises now being discussed truly are. That’s why it ultimately came down to people viewing this issue as a feud of sorts between House Speaker Michael Madigan and state Senate President John Cullerton, both Chicago Democrats.
 

Ultimately, our politicians are going to be asked to vote for something by placing their trust that this will work. And our state legislators, in particular, are an untrusting bunch.

Which is why I don’t see a sudden, last-minute, effort on Thursday that brings this issue to an end.

GAY MARRIAGE ULTIMATELY got resolved on Tuesday because Madigan put the screws to a few legislators to bring the vote total to just enough for the measure to pass – albeit with a delayed date of enactment (June 1, 2014, instead of immediately upon Gov. Pat Quinn’s signature).

He could never have gotten enough votes for the immediate enactment date. Nor could he swing over enough people to support anything resembling pension funding reform – no version of a reform plan seems to be just on the verge of having enough votes for approval.

Personally, here’s hoping that something breaks in the next few weeks that enables the conference committee to come up with something that can get a vote of approval.

Somehow, a special session some time in December might well be the best Christmas present (or belated Hanukkah present, since that holiday coincides with Thanksgiving this year) our Legislature could give to the people of Illinois.

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Skeptical of the smoking stats!

5,500 and 6,400. The two new statistics that I’m not quite sure I believe.

Or, even if they are true, if they really mean all that much.

THOSE ARE THE numbers that aides to Mayor Rahm Emanuel were using on Tuesday to try to justify the proposal to raise the tax on a package of cigarettes by 75 cents.

City Health Department officials admit that this new tax would result in cigarettes costing more in Chicago than anywhere else in the United States. Which they say is a good thing.

Because it would persuade some 5,500 adults to quit smoking (because they can’t afford it anymore) and some 6,400 teenagers to never start smoking in the first place.

It’s my own gut instinct that says people who are determined to smoke are going to, regardless of the official price of a pack of cigarettes. Although even if those number of people do wind up not smoking because it becomes too expensive, is it really worth that much.

BECAUSE WE’RE TALKING about some not-quite 12,000 people out of a population of 2.7 million in the city, or some more than 8 million in the Chicago metro area.

The 11,900 that city officials are saying will not smoke? That’s a pretty insignificant number.

Personally, I’d respect city government more if they’d just come out and admit they want to gouge the people who are so addicted to tobacco that they can’t get by without their two-pack-a-day fix!

At least that would be honest.

NO MATTER HOW much they want to talk about saving $235 million in long-term health costs from problems caused by smoking, they really want the added tax revenue.

There are many areas to which the money – about $10 million per year, city officials say – could be put to use.

Including the child health care programs that city officials say they want to support. A noble goal.

But I wonder at what point do we start seeing people taking extreme measures to avoid buying cigarettes in Chicago? Will it turn out to be like gasoline – where anybody who can possibly avoid using a gas pump in the city limits does so?

WILL WE GET those places selling “cheap smokes” just across the city limits/state line in Hammond, Ind., and surrounding Hoosier communities seeing a sudden surge in business.

Or what of the places within the city – usually in the seedier neighborhoods that most need help but don’t’ get it – where locals know which stores will sell them “loosies.”

As in cigarettes sold individually.

It’s most definitely an illegal act. But there are those people who think they’re Al Capone reincarnated and that they’re “providing a service” to people who merely want to indulge their taste for tobacco.

AND WHEN IT comes to wanting something easily accessible and cheap, some people are more than willing to overlook the legalities of any issue.

As for me, I don’t smoke. It is just one habit I never picked up on. I wish it were practical to think of tax increases like this as a way to seriously decline the number of people who feel compelled to smoke cigarettes. I’m just realistic enough to know that life isn’t quite so easy.

If only the addition of another tax were the way to do it.

Instead, we’re going to get these taxes going higher and higher and some people will pay it. But many others will manage to find their alternatives.

WHICH WILL RESULT in no one getting paid a tax. Because avoiding the tax will be the whole point of the purchase.

The healthcare issues and other problems related to smoking will remain. But the increased tax revenues just won’t be there to back up a solution.

Isn’t that a pleasant thought for the day!

  -30-

EXTRA: History, or Illinois’ lack of political backbone on display?

It seems that Illinois will barely qualify as being amongst the top third of the states of the United States that decided to go forward in striking down the state laws that made it clear marriages between gay couples were not legitimate.

QUINN: His turn to act

Illinois would like to think it is some sort of progressive place. Yet in the end, both Iowa and Minnesota beat the Land of Lincoln to the punch in approving a measure that permitted marriage as an option (rather than just civil union) for gay people.

AND OVERALL, ILLINOIS is 15^th (out of 50) in terms of approving the concept – which once Gov. Pat Quinn puts his signature to the bill will strike down the law the then-Republican-dominated General Assembly enacted in 1996 that specified that marriage between gay couples was completely unacceptable in Illinois.

Do you want a sports analogy? It’s kind of like the integration of Major League Baseball, where the Chicago White Sox were the fifth ball club overall (out of 16 in existence back then) that took on black ballplayers.

The White Sox may be better than the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals or Philadelphia Phillies – but they’re not anything to brag about in that regard.

Although I suppose it could have been worse. Illinois could have let this issue linger on a few more years and we could have wound up being something like 40-somethingth in terms of approving the issue.

I DO FEEL for anyone who winds up someday getting married in whichever state winds up being 50^th of the 50 states to implement it. Because those public officials probably will take pride in being last and will probably behave in ways that the anti-abortion activists do – they push for all kinds of restrictions to make it next to impossible for a woman to actually get an abortion.

MAYFIELD: She was "present"

In terms of the politics, it is intriguing that the reports starting creeping out of the Statehouse on Monday that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, was picking up the telephone and calling certain legislative colleagues to put the pressure on them to quit being wishy-washy on the issue.

The 61 Illinois House members who voted for the issue probably include a few who wish they could have voted “present” (only two did).

As it turns out, there were only three Republicans who went for the idea – including former House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego, who apparently wants urban votes in his bid to become Illinois treasurer in next year’s election cycle.

SMITH: "P" vote adds to legacy

HE’LL NEED THEM, because the rhetoric already is spouting out from opponents of the concept who are determined to dump those supportive legislators come the March primary elections. The Illinois Review website that likes to tout conservative causes couldn’t wait to publish a copy of the roll call for Illinois Senate Bill 10 – just so we’d know who the evildoers are!



Personally, I think state Rep. Thaddeus Jones, D-Calumet City, is typical of the fence-sitting. I haven’t talked to him on Tuesday, so I don’t know what exactly went through his mind.

But he’s a guy who started out the year saying he definitely supported the idea. But as a member of the Black Caucus, he got a lot of the pressure from assorted African-American ministers who wanted him to oppose.

He was publicly supportive of the notion of delaying a vote as long as possible. But in the end, he turned out to be a “Yes” vote on Tuesday – just like he originally said he would be.

MADIGAN: Could he be active earlier?

THE FACT THAT it took so long to resolve, but got settled quickly once Madigan inserted his presence, makes me wonder why he couldn’t have done this back in the spring.

It could have been resolved then, and we could have averted an entire summer’s worth of nonsense rhetoric that I’m sure has inflamed the matter all the more – and may have even created a sense of distrust between the gay rights activists and those who back African-American interests.

Was it worth it?

Or perhaps this is the issue that shows all this talk about “blue” states and Illinois being so far gone to the left is just a bunch of nonsense.

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One year and counting ‘til Election Day

We’re at the first Tuesday following the first Monday of November. Which in most years would mean that we have reached the culmination of the “silly season.”

Go to school!!! NO election today

All the rants and rages and innuendoes and slander and ridiculous rumor being spewed by political people who are trying to take down another political person would be coming to an end. It would be Election Day.

YET 2013 IS the one year every four when we get spared from such trash talk. Our elections this year were limited to select suburbs, and took place back in April. Nobody in Illinois is voting for anything this day.

We’re just at the point where it is now 52 weeks until we have to decide who will win the 2014 election cycle. Our state’s U.S. senate seat will be up for grabs, along with the Illinois governor’s post and all the other offices within state government – including all of our state legislators.

At this time next year (which will fall on Nov. 4, to be exact), we’ll finally be putting an end to the nonsense. But for now, we have a full year of it.

And there will be plenty of nonsense, particularly in the ranks of the governor’s race. Although the Senate race will get silly too – although perhaps not as much because the Republican partisans seem to be having trouble coming up with a credible candidate to take on the mantle of “Dump Dick Durbin.”

AND YES, IF you try searching that phrase on Google or some other search engine, you’ll find a lot of explicit images and definitions of the phrase in a crude manner. Don’t try it, unless you’re prepared to be repulsed.

Countdown to political retirement ...

Then again, there are those who are more repulsed by the prospective GOP nominee – James Oberweis – who has a record of failed campaigns for political office because his attempts at political conservatism wind up being so off-putting to real people.

I’m sure he will spew the venom against Durbin – who wants a fourth six-year term in the Senate. Whether he can credibly make any of his allegations stick has yet to be determined.

Which means most Republicans interested in winning an election are going to be focusing on the gubernatorial race. Which actually falls within their way of looking at government.

THEY WANT THE state governments to be all supreme, with the federal government learning to mind its own business and do what the states tell them to do.

... or preparing for new terms in office?

The GOP-leaning types probably would rather have governor, particularly if they think he would be able to order the U.S. senators around in some way.

But the gubernatorial field is such right now that I don’t have a clue which of the four candidates now circulating nominating petitions to get on the March primary ballot will actually be running in November.

I could see both William Brady and Kirk Dillard (who has gone out of his way to alter his one-time moderate stances into something that can appeal to the rural conservative interests that dominate the Republicans these days) getting not only those people excited, but also the interests of urban Chicago.

AS IN ANGERING those urban voters to the point where they turn out in force to vote for anybody but them – even Pat Quinn, whom many think of as being so bland, if not incompetent.

I could also see Bruce Rauner’s campaign being just the thing to turn off the Republican base to the point where they don’t bother to vote next year. He is, after all, the friend of Mayor Rahm Emanuel (which has me wondering how long until someone starts beating up on Dillard because he used to be a friend to Barack Obama back when both served together in the state Senate).

OBERWEIS: Does he help, or hurt?

The GOP’s best chance to win could well be Dan Rutherford – although it’s questionable whether the one-time Pontiac-area legislator has enough of a personality to run a credible statewide campaign.

But it could be that he gets the Republican base, while Democrats take their usual attitude toward state government elections. They don’t matter!!!!

BECAUSE WE ALL “know” that the elections of real importance are the City Hall ones that will take place in 2015. State government is for the people who aren’t qualified to serve in the city (which could be part of why Stephanie Neely wouldn’t want to give up a city treasurer post to be lieutenant governor).

Of course, the real truth is that I don’t have a clue who’s going to win on that first Tuesday following the first Monday of November that will take place one year from now.

Anybody who says they do know is either lying to you, or else is more ridiculously optimistic than a Chicago Cubs fan.

  -30-

We’re back on “real” time. What’s real?

We all did the routine this weekend of resetting our clocks, on account of the fact we’re off Daylight Savings Time and will now spend the next four months on standard time.

Which some people like to get all worked up about. Daylight Savings Time is some sort of artificial scam that takes us away from viewing time in terms of the way the Good Lord willing meant for us to do so.

PERHAPS I’VE JUST been reading too much of the commentary posted by my Facebook-type “friends.”

But yes, the whole issue of time has gotten some of them worked up – particularly those with ties to Indiana. For that is a state that particularly confounds the whole concept of time. Which makes me wonder if their confusion has the potential to spill over the state line into Illinois.

Some of us are just itching for an excuse to rant about something. Perhaps they’ll find a way to blame Daylight Savings Time on Barack Obama!

Indiana is a state in the Eastern Time Zone – except for those portions around Gary and the state's Southwestern portion right on the Illinois/Indiana border. They follow the concept of “real” time – which I define as being whatever time it happens to be in Chicago.

LET THE REST of the world follow our clock, as far as I’m concerned!!!

I do remember a conversation I once had with a college classmate who was from Indiana (Wabash, if I recall correctly) who tried to argue that Indiana was most logical when it came to time zones and Daylight Saving vs. Standard time by saying, “We never have to change our clocks.”

Considering how the whole concept of moving forward or backward an hour confuses many of us, that may be a legitimate point.

Although I wonder at times if the fact that the bulk of Indiana never experiences the once-a-year concept of gaining an hour of sleep means they’re somehow not-quite rested enough. Maybe that’s why Hoosiers are a unique (and, at times, illogical) breed.

PERSONALLY, I VIEW the concept of Daylight Savings Time as the norm – largely because it’s what we experience for eight months out of the year. It is the concept of Standard Time that has become bizarre – and depressing.

Let’s face it. Who really wants the shortened daylight that’s going to literally turn sunset into some time about 4:30 p.m. Although I have to admit those days back in mid-June when the sun didn’t go down until about 9 p.m. seemed equally freakish.

Not as odd as the idea of the midnight sun somewhere in isolated Alaska. But close!

Yet there are those who will vehemently argue for the demise of Daylight Savings Time just as intensely as any National League baseball fan who can’t accept the fact that the existence of the Designated Hitter has become the norm in baseball and that it is THEY who are the oddballs.

I MENTIONED FACEBOOK earlier, literally because I read this debate about whether Indiana should shift time zones, with many insisting their state is Eastern (as though they can’t see on a map that they – and Michigan too – ought to be Central time).

I’d hate to see that shift mainly because I can envision the chaos that would result if State Line Road also became a time zone boundary. The southeastern portion of the greater Chicago metro area would literally be ahead of the rest of us – and would further be isolated.

Where time was a constant

If anything, there is one place that may have the whole concept of time correct – the ballpark. For I still remember a feature story I once read about people who worked at Comiskey Park during the off-season. The writer noted that the clock on the old center field scoreboard (with all its lights, pinwheels and explosives) was an hour off – because it never gets reset.

Because by the time the baseball season begins again, it will once again be Daylight Savings Time – and all will be right with the world.

  -30-

EDITOR’S NOTE: My own confusion with the time change involves having to remember which of the clocks around my humble abode need to be reset, and which will reset automatically. If I get careless, I gain two extra hours, and my whole routine is off for days to come.

Sun-Times may speak out again on pols, but finding other ways to influence newspapers across nation

What should we think of our city’s Chicago Sun-Times, where there are hints the top management may start speaking out on who should get to be our pols?

But it would also seem that the actions of the Sun-Times are now spreading to the business practices of other publications – as they now have company among the ranks of publications that don’t feel the need to have real photographers on staff.

THE PUBLICATION IN question is the Times Herald-Record, an 80,000-circulation newspaper out of Middletown, N.Y. The Gate House Media company laid off several staffers at its publications out east, and let go all four of their full-time photographers at the Middletown paper.

Unlike the jokes that now occur with Sun-Times and their suburban sister papers having their reporters use their cellphones to take pictures for publication, the Middletown paper says it will use photos from freelance photographers.

Perhaps they think they can get their existing photographers to remain on duty without having to pay them a regular salary with the benefits typically expected of a job!

It makes me wonder how long it will be before this trend backlashes back to the Midwest. Gate House, after all, is the company that owns the newspapers in Springfield, Peoria and Rockford.

WILL THEY TRY to claim that what is good for Middletown will play just as well in Peoria? Is this going to be the Sun-Times’ great contribution to American journalism – relying on extra-cheap images no matter how tawdry they make the paper look?

What I have never comprehended about this shift, no matter where it is done, is that the owners try to defend it as being part of the shift to a digital product. Yet most of the types of media that they envision happening will need to be more reliant on images.

Their “explanation” makes no sense. It really was more honest to read the recent Chicago magazine interview with the Sun-Times where the head guy admitted he had been viewing the photographers’ jobs for a year-and-a-half before they were actually cut.

It seems there are too many people getting into the newsgathering racket these days because they want to pick dry what is left of a newspaper’s financial assets before letting them wither away.

WHICH MAKES ME wonder if the idea that the Sun-Times wants to start endorsing political candidates again is about wanting to assuage the owners’ egos.

Let them be able to speak out for as long as they can keep their publications going.

Because this is a change in policy for the paper – which actually made a point of trying to claim a moral high ground in saying for the 2012 election cycle that they wouldn’t endorse anybody for political office.

Crain’s Chicago Business is now reporting that the paper will soon announce that it is going back to making public picks for government posts. Although the JimRomenesko.com web site that monitors news media is saying that the decision is not final!

MY GUT REACTION is pleasure. Because I always thought it was a bit weasel-ly for the paper to think it was being extra moral in its attitude toward public policy by NOT taking editorial stances prior to Elections Day.

People may not agree with every endorsement. But it comes across as cowardly (in my mind) to not take a stance – which can enlighten readers in terms of understanding a paper’s viewpoint on issues that can help comprehend their attempts at news coverage.

Besides, they also add to a paper’s personality. Would anyone ever pay attention to the Union Leader of Manchester, N.H., if not for the schizophrenic endorsements they have concocted throughout the decades?

Although we run the risk of getting campaign endorsements from a company that thinks they’re somehow improving quality by running smartphone-shot photographs!

  -30-

Somebody needs to tell Boston to stifle. Not a record that they won at Fenway

Excuse me for wanting to wretch at all the nonsense-talk being spewed Wednesday night about how the Boston Red Sox, the long-suffering Red Sox, had finally broken an endless streak of futility.

The last Chicago ball club to win the World Series at home -- the hitless wonders

 

95 years it had been since the Red Sox won a World Series at their home Fenway Park. So long that no Red Sox fan could say they had actually seen such an event live (and if they did, they’ve probably forgotten it by now).

TO THAT THOUGHT, I want to give a great big raspberry. Or maybe I’ll call it a Bronx Cheer, because I’m sure the reference to the borough that houses the New York Yankees will bother them a bit more!

A large part of why I think Wednesday’s victory is nothing special is because of the fact that, combined with the Red Sox’ World Series victories in 2004 and 2007, they have three World Series titles in the past 10 years.

That’s a big streak of success for any ball club. Futility does not count – even if the final Red Sox wins in those series came in St. Louis and Denver, respectively. This is the World Series where Red Sox infielder Will Middlebrooks made potentially a career-defining defensive gaffe whose memory will be washed away by the Red Sox ultimate victory.

But let’s also note that if you really do want to think of a 95-year time period without a World Series final victory at home as some sort of significant statistic, it’s not even the record.

THAT WOULD HAVE to go to Chicago. Both of our ball clubs.

A historic scrap of paper for Chicago

The only Chicago World Series title that came at home literally goes back to 1906 – when the White Sox beat the Cubs in six games, and the final 8-3 victory on Oct. 14 was at the old South Side grounds at Pershing and Wentworth avenues.

The 1917 and 2005 World Series titles for the White Sox were won on the road (New York and Houston, respectively), while the only two World Series wins for the Cubs (1907 and 1908) were both won on the road in Detroit.

The Cubs have never won a World Series while playing at Wrigley Field, while they haven’t even played in one there since 1945.

SO AS FOR Boston feeling the need Wednesday to feel sorry for themselves? A batch of nonsense.

PIERZYNSKI: Speaking plainly

I’d like to think that when the year occurs (it might not be any time soon), we’re not going to hear Chicago fans engaging in the same silliness. For one thing, White Sox fans would shudder in disgust that such a long streak occurred, while Cubs fans would down their sorrows with another Old Style beer (which they will now have to buy at places other than the ballpark itself).

Of course, this also means I’m not buying into the rhetoric spewed Wednesday that the celebration engaged in by Boston fans was somehow on a historic scale never before seen amongst sports fans.

I think one-time Chicago White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski (who was part of the Fox Sports broadcast team that did the World Series aftermath) put it best when he pointed out that after the White Sox win in ‘05, “When (the White Sox) got home (the next day), they were still partying in Chicago.”

SO WHAT DO we get to look forward to now that the “Ball Game Today” signs have to be taken down – for at least the 150 days between now and when the U.S. major league teams start having their Opening Days for 2014?

Some may shift their attention to the winter leagues of Latin America which began play last month. Although I suspect most people here won't bother. Baseball will go on the backburner until March.

Except to dream about what’s possible, particularly since the White Sox have the potential for Cuban slugger Jose Abreu to combine with Dominican Avisail Garcia for a heavy-slugging middle-of-the-batting order that could make them competitive for seasons to come.

While Cubs fans will speculate about how much of a difference their yet-to-be-appointed new manager will make in a team that likes to lose close to 100 games per season.

NEITHER ONE OF these factors may make a difference. Both ball clubs may stink again next season.

Time to take down the sign for another season

 

Although the fact that the very same Red Sox who are now World Series winners were a last place team last year probably has some White Sox fans fantasizing that ’14 will be their year to win big – and perhaps end their own streak of not having an on-field celebration in their home ballpark.

We can always dream.

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