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BRIEFLY Edited by Donald Sevener PAYING THE PIPER
Welfare reform to hit immigrants This spring, about 39,000 legal immigrants in Illinois will lose food stamps. Supplemental Security Income or both when new federal welfare rules take effect. This translates into an estimated $163 million burden for Illinois, the fifth largest state in terms of legal immigrant arrivals. "I don't see how we have the state dollars to pick up that program," Gov. Jim Edgar told reporters last month during the National Governors' Association conference in Washington,D.C. While in the nation's capital, Edgar helped craft a compromise on changes in the controversial law, including restoration of federal aid to some legal immigrants. In response to the governors' concern, President Bill Clinton restored some of the benefits to legal immigrants in his budget proposal, even though nearly half of the $55 billion projected savings from the new welfare program would come from those benefit reductions. The money is still far from being deposited in states' coffers, however. Even if Clinton's proposal passes, it is still undetermined how the money will be divided among states, cautions Edgar press secretary Mike Lawrence. Many see the answer in naturalization. That's because naturalized citizens have the same rights and, therefore, the same welfare benefits as those born in the United States. Still, this could leave many elderly and disabled legal immigrants — many of whom may not be able to master English well enough to pass the test — without a safety net. In 1994, the last year for updated statistics, about 1.2 million foreign-born people were living in Illinois — approximately half of those people are legal immigrants, another 500,000 are naturalized citizens. The remaining 244,000 are undocumented. "Most legal immigrants will be able to become naturalized with some [English and government] instruction," says Rob Paral of the Latino Institute, a Chicago-based not-for-profit research and advocacy organization. "Still, there is going to be a core — I don't know the exact percentage — of elderly and disabled immigrants who will be unable to meet the naturalization requirements. These are people's grandmothers, people who came here when they were elderly. Many of them haven't had a lot of formal schooling; many may not even speak English." Paral assumes those who can't become naturalized citizens will turn to their families, communities and religious institutions for help. "Beyond that, I don't know what they'll do," says Paral. "As a last resort, maybe they'll be facing homelessness." Jennifer Davis
PADDLING UPSTREAM The state is seeking federal help to clean up the Illinois River. Gov. Jim Edgar has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to designate the river basin a National Priority Area. Under the proposed federal-state partnership, the state would spend approximately $100 million over 15 years. The feds would contribute about $400 million. Meanwhile, we finally have a detailed guide for the cleanup. The question is whether anyone will pay attention. Lt. Gov. Bob Kustra and his Illinois River Strategy Team released the 34-part plan in late January. It calls on state government to offer technical help and cash incentives, local governments to update ordinances, farm groups and environmentalists to cooperate and volunteers to supply labor. The goal is to keep soil, farm chemicals, sewage and other pollutants out of the river, which is rapidly filling with silt (see Illinois Issues, January 1997, page 22). The focus of the strategy report is the need to foster economic growth in the communities that lie along the Illinois, in the belief that improving the well-being of towns will increase the number of people with a stake in a healthy river. But many of the suggestions require more planning and analysis. Further, the plan is completely voluntary. State agencies can adapt their programs to follow the plan or they can forget the whole thing. Volunteers can keep working or go home and let somebody else worry about the next step. Kustra promises his office and members of the strategy team will promote the plan. If that doesn't happen, an important step toward saving Illinois' premier river system will be washed away. Christopher Wills 8 / March 1997 Illinois Issues MAKING SAUSAGE
Road hogs, armed drunks, Irish history — In an era of limited government, it sometimes seems there is no limit to what government is asked to do. Consider these gems, introduced by,. lawmakers in the 90th General Assembly. It may be the last time you hear of them. ¥ House Bill 153 would make it moving violation to drive "excessively" in the left lane — a problem many of us have, according to Democratic Rep. Joel Brunsvold of Milan, who sponsored the bill. Brunsvold's conclusion is the result of frequent travel to the Statehouse from his home district just south of the Quad Cities. In fact, he recently spent some quality time researching the need for this legislation. "I was behind two trucks for eight miles," says Brunsvold. "I blew my horn for about six, but it didn't do any good." With so many (often lead-footed) legislators spending so much time on the road, Brunsvold believes his proposal will find broad legislative support. ¥ Senate Bill 258 would add ratites to the definition of livestock. This bill is not as interesting once a check of the dictionary reveals that ratites are ostriches and emu, not tiny rats. That the bill's sponsor, Democrat Bruce Parley, hails from Chicago is intriguing. ¥ House Bill 82, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Jack McGuire of Joliet, would require schools to teach about the Irish famine of 1846. A long list of bipartisan supporters have jumped on to help ensure passage. Some of them aren't even Irish. McGuire happens to be — 100 percent, in fact. Still, the idea wasn't his. "Some people brought it to me a couple years ago because it was going to be the 150th anniversary, and I thought it was a good idea," says McGuire, adding this is "not an attempt to compete with the Holocaust or Black History Month." "It was one of the great calamities of our time. Millions of people died, and it did change the culture of this country. This is just an attempt to make sure there's at least some mention of it." ¥ Senate Bill 686 — in the common sense category — was sponsored by Republican Tom Walsh of LaGrange Park. Walsh's bill would make it a felony to "sell or give a firearm to a person who is visibly intoxicated or incoherent." OK, sounds good. Last but not least, there is public indecency, which of course always catches the eye. ¥ Senate Bill 232 is co-sponsored by two Republicans: Sen. Carl Hawkinson of Galesburg and Sen. Todd Sieben of Geneseo. The bill requires imprisonment for second-and third-time offenders and makes a fourth offense a felony. FYI, the occasional college streak wouldn't qualify. Seriously, though, the bill is the result of one dramatic case in northern Illinois involving a man convicted several times in several counties of masturbating in front of teenage girls. Under current law, the maximum penalty is a year in jail and a $1,000 fine, no matter how many convictions. With day-for-day good time off, the real sentence is about six months. So, if you spot a gun-toting drunk hogging the left lane and reciting Irish history, don't worry — government is on the case. Jennifer Davis Illinois Issues March 1997 / 9 BRIEFLY Say you hate advertising? Oh, no you don't Could you care less about the Bud Bowl? Do you disdain Doing the Dew? Would you like to wring the Energizer Bunny's furry little neck? Not so fast. According to a recent survey of public opinion by the Cummings Center for Advertising Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, you actually like advertising; if, that is, you're like most Americans. Which is not to say you trust what you see. "People seemed to like advertisements more than they trust them," says Sharon Shavitt, who coordinated the study.
10 / March 1997 Illinois Issues SURE BET
Lottery game announcers Each weekend, the Illinois lottery's "Instant Riches Game" airs on eight television stations across the state. Lucky contestants can win thousands of dollars. But the hosts of the program are guaranteed they will come away winners. Former MTV personality Mark Goodman is the host of the Instant Riches show. According to information obtained from the lottery department through a Freedom of Information request, Goodman comes in at least once a month to tape several episodes and is paid $1,500 for each show. That means he could make in the neighborhood of $75,000 a year for about a day's worth of work each month. Goodman also receives an extra $300 an hour should taping go overtime. And he receives additional pay for photo shoots, personal appearances and promotional travel. His counterpart on the show, Linda Kollmeyer, receives $600 per show, or about $30,000 a year, along with compensation for personal appearances. That pays a lot better than just announcing a lottery drawing. Gina Raffin, the announcer for the multi-state lottery's "The Big Game," makes only $183 per drawing, and that cost is shared by all the states involved. Still, it's clear some people have found a way to play the lottery and beat the odds. Bill Wheelhouse Illinois Issues March 1997 / 11 BRIEFLY PRESSBOX:
What others are writing about legislative gridlock, Governing magazine's February issue examines the trend toward full-time, professional legislatures and finds — get ready — that new isn't necessarily improved. In "Rise and Fall: A Tale of Two Legislatures," author Charles Mahtesian describes a highly professional, full-time, well-staffed, Internet-connected Minnesota legislature wracked by partisan gridlock, special interest influence and re-election mania. In contrast, he found in Tennessee citizen legislators who treat one another with civility and a minimum of partisanship and a cooperative spirit that results in impressive legislative achievements. He concludes: "Professionalism creates an institution filled with able, full-time legislators, talented staff and generous resources. And yet many of these institutions become hopelessly polarized from the back benches to the rostrum." The article notes that the National Conference of State Legislatures classifies 10 states (including Illinois) as having professional legislatures, 17 as having a "citizen" or part-time legislative body and 23 (including Tennessee) as having a hybrid system. Illinois, Mahtesian writes, is similar to other states with professional legislatures "in its partisan ferocity." He cites last year's battle over Gov. Jim Edgar's plan to raise taxes for school funding that ran up against the Republican majority's desire to remain a majority. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch took an in-depth look at the economic benefits of riverboat casinos and, in the state's most economically depressed community, found them to be of only fleeting value. In a thorough examination of the effects of the Casino Queen in East St. Louis, the February 2 Post-Dispatch story found several substantial financial advantages the riverboat brought to the debt-ridden city. Important city services profited: working fire trucks, more police in more cruisers, new employees in the public works department and a smaller city debt. But staff writers Kevin McDermott and Margaret Gillerman also found the long-term economic benefits to be negligible. Only about a third of the casino's work force comes from East St. Louis, and total unemployment has been largely unaffected by the riverboat. The forecast of spin-off businesses, one of the more salient sales pitches of casino proponents, has yet to take hold in East. St. Louis. "The real issue is the long-term question of survival of the city," Earl Lazerson, chairman of the city's Financial Advisory Authority, told the Post-Dispatch. "If you put all your eggs in one basket, you're setting yourself up for a fall." East St. Louis Mayor Gordon D. Bush concurred, saying he is "tremendously concerned" about the city's heavy reliance on the casino. According to the Post-Dispatch, East St. Louis derives 62 percent of its municipal revenues from the Casino Queen, the highest percentage of any riverboat town. (Casino revenues as a percent of city budget ranged from 1.5 percent in Rock Island to 55 percent in Joliet, which has four riverboats.) But Bush also noted that the community did not have a choice between a riverboat and a manufacturing plant with its more solid, enduring economic benefits. "If we could have had a manufacturing plant move in, it would have been preferable. No one was waiting in line to come into our city except the developers of the casino." George magazine's January issue presented a mosaic of welfare in America, exploring the faces of public assistance from the metropolitan area of New York City to a rural hamlet in West Virginia to the suburban area of Waukegan, III. There, writer Kim Phillips found that the effects of last year's federal welfare reform measure are likely to hit poor people hard. She states that "everybody loves the idea of welfare reform in Waukegan"; many Waukegans consider welfare recipients to be a "drag on the moral and economic life of the town." But citing the example of one welfare mom — a "typical" Waukegan public aid recipient — shows another part of the story. Yashica Smith, mother of four, works for a temporary service and has been on welfare four times. She gets health benefits, unavailable from her employer, through Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Phillips notes that most Waukegan welfare 12 / March 1997 Illinois Issues Pressbox CONTINUED recipients have held jobs in the past and will in the future. Yet, she also points out that most of those jobs pay little and offer no benefits or security. Phillips describes the state's Earnfare program, which places childless food stamp recipients in jobs, and says if all recipients were subject to Earnfare, the labor market in Waukegan would be glutted, driving down wages even further. Phillips concludes that the effects of welfare reform on suburban areas like Waukegan won't be fully known until the next recession. But Sharron Matthews of the Public Welfare Coalition predicts the consequences will not be pretty. "The effect on the suburbs will be much worse than anyone realizes," Matthews told Phillips. "The first round of casualties will be legal immigrants, children and drug and alcohol abusers. But very quickly we'll see that the rest of us — people who are employed, who are homeowners, who live in the suburbs — will all feel the economic impact." Donald Sevener WINING AND DINING
Lobbyists set spending record It's been said that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, and apparently the same is true in winning the hearts of politicians. Secretary of State George Ryan reported recently that, as of early February, lobbyists seeking to influence the course of government action spent a record $1,061,564 buying meals, drinks and entertainment for state officials in 1996. That figure represented an increase of $123,996, or about 13 percent over 1995, a growth rate somewhat beyond inflation in food prices.
According to Ryan, the second largest category (food and entertainment) of lobbyist spending in 1996 was $202,876 spent on gifts, including golf shirts, game tickets, fruit baskets and coffee mugs. Trips and lodging for state officials cost lobbyists $31,514. Ryan also noted that one category — spending on honoraria — fell significantly, from $9,870 in 1995 to just $1,975 in 1996. Legislators are now prohibited by law from accepting cash for speaking engagements. The biggest spender among lobbyists in 1996 was Ameritech. The regional phone company, which has a vital interest at stake in the deregulation of the telecommunications industry, spent $78,327 reaching out to Illinois public officials in 1996. Donald Sevener Illinois Issues March 1997 / 13 |
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