BRIEFLYEdited by Donald Sevener SCHOOL FINANCE Funding reform fails in Springfield For almost 150 years, Illinois has relied primarily on property taxes to fund education. And it could be a while longer before anything changes. " The year for school funding reform" yielded no fundamental shift toward state financial support of public schools. "School kids have been forsaken," said Gov. Jim Edgar after the General Assembly headed home for the summer. Indeed, lawmakers may have missed their best chance to make change any time soon. They face an election next year, and it's a good bet they'll be even less eager then to raise state taxes to support education. Schools get 59 percent of revenues from local property taxes, resulting in wide spending disparities among districts. Rural communities, for instance, can't bring in as many dollars as industry-rich suburbs. Further, the state's share of education funding has dropped from 48 percent in 1976 to about 32 percent. Edgar envisioned and lawmakers promised to produce a meaningful school reform package this session. The reality: No money for school construction or repairs. No teacher accountability requirements. No overhaul in funding. Instead, tax-shy lawmakers approved a one-time infusion of cash: an additional $253 million. Edgar's plan for all schools to spend at least $4,225 per student passed the House, primarily with Democratic support, but died in the Senate. Meanwhile, a Senate Republican plan passed that chamber, but died in the House. Negotiations stopped there. "One man — aided by the submissiveness of some senators whose constituents would have benefited tremendously — blocked the school reform that the people of Illinois have overwhelmingly favored and wanted for three decades," Edgar said. But Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald of Palatine said he couldn't ask "taxpayers to run faster and faster just to feed state government." Edgar would have boosted the income tax 25 percent, raising $1.5 billion to be divided among schools ($614 million) and to provide property tax relief for homeowners ($900 million). The plan also provided about $100 million for school construction and repair and set tougher tenure and teacher certification standards. The Senate Republican plan would have increased the cigarette tax 10 cents a pack and the phone tax 20 percent. That, along with additional revenue the state hadn't counted on, was designed to fund all school districts at $4,050 per student next year and $4,300 the following year. After almost 25 years of talking about school funding reform, this legislative session was supposed to be the one. Yet it wasn't. No middle ground was reached. And no one is claiming victory for the schoolchildren of Illinois. Chicago Democratic Sen. Art Berman said this: "Shame on us. Shame onus." Jennifer Davis Senate short circuits electric deregulation After weeks of negotiations, the major utilities, representatives of business and consumer activists were unable to agree on a plan to unplug the state's power monopolies. Faced with a 256-page bill in the final days of the spring session, some lawmakers decided they needed more time. The House approved the measure; the Senate didn't. Orland Park Republican William Mahar, chair of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee, called the issue "the most complicated thing I've ever been involved in in my life."
In fact, the debate over deregulation
of the nation's $210 billion electric
industry is complex. (See Illinois
Issues, January 1997, page 12.) Yet,
while a discussion of "stranded costs"
might put some to sleep, the state's
power industry characterizes utility
deregulation as the most important
policy decision in a generation.
The idea seems simple enough:
Among the key sticking points: • Timing. The state's largest utilities want to phase in consumer choice. Chicago-based Commonwealth Edison and Illinois Power of Decatur would allow choice for industrial con sumers first. Central Illinois Light Co. of Peoria would give all classes of customers a choice at the same time. • Consumer savings. ComEd and IP proposed cutting rates by 5 percent to 15 percent, beginning in 1998. That provision drew the Citizens Utility Board, which represents consumers, into an unusual alliance with the power giants. Critics argue the savings could be offset by other utility charges. • Utility costs. ComEd and IP spent the spring looking for a plan that would help them recoup investments made under a regulated system, primarily in unprofitable nuclear plants. Other states have taken differing approaches to these so-called 8 / June 1997 Illinois Issues "stranded costs," estimated to total $135 billion nationwide. (See Illinois Issues, April 1997, page 30.) New Hampshire won't allow utilities with rates above the regional average to recover such investments. California officials are going to tack a fee onto every electric bill to cover the costs. ComEd and IP propose a transition fee for customers who switch utilities. Meanwhile, representatives of industrial customers worry any savings gained through choice would be eaten up by those charges. • Oversight. The measure approved by the House would allow the Illinois Commerce Commission oversight when a utility "spins off" profitable assets into separate companies. The concern is that utilities could leave customers holding the bag for less profitable assets. States that don't act soon to deregulate electric utilities might be nudged along by Congress. Federal legislation has been proposed to require the states to do so. Lawmakers could tackle the issue again this fall. The measure makes for unlikely beach reading, though. And Mahar dubs the continuing negotiations the "treadmill to hell." Peggy Boyer Long and Chris Bowe GEORGE RYAN'S GOOD YEAR With .08, the Republican secretary of state becomes legislative slugger In sports parlance, Secretary of Stale George Ryan had a career year. Many of the legislative measures he embraced were enacted into law, most notably a stricter drunk driving standard. Defeated repeatedly since first being introduced in 1989, the proposal to lower the threshold for intoxication from. 10 blood alcohol content to .08 stands as an impressive achievement. Illinois Issues asked Ryan about the success of the measure, and his legislative batting average. Q,. Why has it taken so long to pass .08? It's an education process. Basically with the legislators, it's a downstate-upstate kind of fight. The downstate legislators were concerned that they didn't have mass transit [available for someone who] went out and had a few drinks. And the liquor industry spread some rumor about how many drinks it took to get to .08. That scared a few people. And we were able to dispel that myth. I think one of the convincing factors was the demonstration we had at Pawnee for some of the legislators when they really found out how much it took to reach .08. You could drink an awful lot and still [not] reach .08. Once they determined that and realized that was true, the bill passed. Q. How do you think you finally got it through the Senate tins year? I spent a little time with [Senate President James] "Pate" [Philip] and members of the Senate. I think the folks who went down to Pawnee and saw the demonstration helped sell the Senate. John Cullerton [Democrat of Chicago] was a part of that. Drank a whole bottle of wine in an hour and still blew .06. So it was a process I think that just took a little time, and we're delighted it passed. I think it's going to save a lot of lives. Q,. Where does this rank as a legislative victory since you've been secretary of state? Probably number one as secretary of state. It's an issue I've tried to pass since I've been here. For an individual weighing 165 pounds, it would take four alcoholic drinks in one hour to reach .08. That's one drink less than it would take to reach the current limit. Frank Vinluan FRIEND OF THE COURT "Eight to two. No impeachment." With those words into his cellular phone, Jim Thompson told state Supreme Court Justice James D. Eleiple his long ordeal was over. That ordeal began last year, when, according to Pekin police, Heiple resisted a traffic stop. It culminated in more than a week's worth of legislative hearings last month. In the end, a House committee determined that Heiple's controversial behavior — which included questionable appointments during his brief tenure as chief justice — was not impeachable. Yet even Thompson, Heiple's lawyer during the hearings, agreed the judge showed lapses in judgment. In a telephone interview7 a week after the committee's vote, the former governor said Heiple's most serious misstep came in an opinion denying a rehearing on the decision to return Baby Richard to his biological father. Heiple, said Thompson, made a "grievous mistake" by "excoriating" his critics. "That was a declaration of war," Thompson said, "and he got war." His actions were politicized. Indeed, a movement is brewing at the federal level to target judges who take positions at odds with congressional conservatives. House Whip Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican and member of the GOP leadership team, has threatened articles of impeachment against judges whose decisions he considers "particularly egregious." Such threats alarm those who believe in the value of judicial independence. U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, an Illinois Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, scoffs at the idea. "I do not believe that impeachment can or should be based on a judge's decision on the merits of any particular case or upon the judge's political philosophy," he said. Thompson agreed. Judicial independence, he said, is a valued constitutional principle "because judges have the ultimate say over what the legislature does.... Anything that threatens that balance is suspect." Thompson said the Heiple case was not partisan. Still, "Heiple was the first ever investigated for impeachment, in reality, for the content of an opinion. But for Baby Richard, we wouldn't have been there." Jennifer Davis and Donald Sevener; Illinois Issues June 1997 / 9 BRIEFLY LEGISLATIVE CHECKLIST Brief items from the spring session
Frank Vinluan and Jennifer Davis Law governing hog farms unchanged Environmentalists have a beef with new regulations governing huge hog farms, but state lawmakers decided the law, approved last year, needs a testing period. In mid-May, the Pollution Control Board adopted final rules to implement the Livestock Management Facilities Act, which establishes construction standards and management procedures for the farms, some of which raise thousands of hogs. The rules set standards for constructing waste lagoons and monitoring groundwater. They also established the distance livestock facilities must be from residential areas. The minimum distance is a quarter of a mile from the nearest occupied residence. Distance increases with the size of the farm. But critics say the law is too weak. Chirag Mehta of the Illinois Stewardship Alliance, stressed the need for stricter siting and disposal restrictions. And rural residents continue to worry about odor and water pollution.
Though stiffer regulatory laws were
not approved this year — measures to
do so failed to get out of committee —
Rep. Larry Woolard says the issue won't
be forgotten. The Carterville Democrat,
who heads the House Agriculture Committee, plans to convene a panel this
summer to evaluate the new regulations.
Maybe he should try a tax on newsprint What's with The Wall Street Journal, anyway? Gov. Jim Edgar sure would like to know. The nation's largest circulation daily newspaper seems to bear a personal grudge against Edgar; it has launched an editorial barrage against the governor's tax proposals. A year ago, when Edgar was among those mentioned as possible vice presidential candidates on the ticket with Bob Dole, the Journal published a ballistic editorial denouncing the governor's plan to raise income taxes to pay for school finance reform and lower property taxes. Last month, the Journal strafed him again — not once, but twice. First, in an editorial entitled "Tax recidivist," the newspaper asked: "Has anyone checked GOP Governor Jim Edgar's voting registration lately?" The editorial went on to say that the Illinois governor "has turned himself into a major lagging indicator" for proposing a "whopping" 25 percent tax increase. A week later, the Journal was back with another editorial assault, contending that Republicans who raise taxes lose elections. Perhaps the newspaper forgot that Edgar was first elected governor vowing to make permanent an income tax increase that was about to expire.
You'd think a smart newspaper like
The Wall Street Journal would know
that tax is not a four-letter word.
10 / June 1997 Illinois Issues Legislation at a glance Performing a late-term abortion procedure called "partial-birth" by anti-abortion activists could become a felony under a bill on its way to Gov. Jim Edgar. Supporters and opponents debated the measure passionately, but it passed both chambers by comfortable margins. The Illinois Department of Public Health says it has no record of late- term abortions in 1996. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says late-term abortions are appropriate when the mother's health or life is threatened. President Bill Clinton, who last year vetoed a measure to ban the procedure, said he would back a proposal to ban all third-trimester abortions except those that would prevent harm to the mother's health. An Edgar aide says the governor is pro-choice but may consider restrictions in later stages of pregnancy.
Who wants to give up a shot at free Bulls tickets? Not the state Senate, which torpedoed a measure to ban gifts from lobbyists. The House had approved the bill — sponsored by House Speaker Michael J. Madigan — which would have prohibited lobbyists from giving gifts to lawmakers, elected officials or state agency heads. The measure exempted food and drink. Last year, lobbyists reported spending $1.3 million on freebies for state officials.
Despite early predictions to the contrary, this was not the year for major campaign finance reform in Illinois. Lawmakers did agree on a plan to put campaign financial reports on the World Wide Web and eliminate the so-called D-3 form, which asks people who examine contribution and spending reports to give their address, occupation and reason for looking. Among the ideas that didn't make it out of the legislature, but are likely to appear in sponsors' campaign literature: • require campaign contributors to name their employer. • ban personal use of campaign funds by politicians. Proposals to cap contributions and spending went nowhere, too. Measures to allow Illinoisans to carry concealed weapons failed even to get a vote. House Speaker Michael Madigan ruled the "Family and Personal Protection Act" would intrude on local authority, thereby requiring a three-fifths vote. Opponents, including Illinois State Police Director Terrance Gainer, argued the move would make Illinois less safe. Proponents vow they'll be back. Sponsor Rep. Mike Weaver, an Ashmore Republican, says conceal- carry would help prevent crime because attackers wouldn't know who was armed. All but seven states allow some form of concealed weapons. Chris Bowe, Jennifer Davis, Peggy Boyer Long, John Micek and Frank Vinluan
Update:
Convicted sex offenders could face confinement beyond prison under a measure overwhelmingly passed by the General Assembly. The measure would authorize civil confinement for offenders until they are no longer sexually dangerous. Even if Gov. Jim Edgar signs the bill, the debate will continue. Civil rights advocates argue civil confinement constitutes additional punishment. Backers of the bill say such confinement, most likely to a mental institution, offers treatment. Kansas has a civil confinement law, but its constitutionality has been challenged. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on that question shortly. Still, supporters of the Illinois measure — modeled on a Wisconsin law upheld by that state's high court — say it should meet constitutional muster. Frank Vinluan Illinois Issues June 1997 / 11 BRIEFLY GUARDING THE GUARDS Measure makes prison sex a felony Women behind bars in Illinois prisons may soon be less vulnerable to sexual abuse. Illinois lawmakers approved legislation to make it a felony for prison workers to have sex with inmates, even if it is consensual. Human rights groups and the Illinois Department of Corrections have pushed for such a law to fill a gap in state statutes. Neither sexual relations nor sexual contact with prisoners by corrections staff are expressly prohibited under Illinois' rape and sexual assault laws. As for prison rules, the prohibition on sexual contact must be read into a broad provision of the Illinois Administrative Code that prohibits employees from "socializing with committed persons." In March, two former prison guards and one current guard at Dwight Correctional Center were indicted on charges they had sex with inmates in the all-female prison. But because investigators do not believe the women were raped or forced into the relationship, male officers were charged with official misconduct. The John Howard Association, a prison watchdog group based in Chicago, and the New York-based Human Rights Watch called for similar legislation last year. As the number of incarcerated women in Illinois has risen dramatically, so has the need for reform of prison rules and criminal laws, these organizations maintain. Presently, there are 2,380 women incarcerated in Illinois, 5.9 percent of the state's prison population. Meanwhile, male correctional officers outnumber female officers by more than two to one. According to the Human Rights Watch report, few written restrictions delineate male officers' responsibilities in overseeing female prisoners. However, Nic Howell, spokesman for the Department of Corrections, notes that because the vast majority of prisoners are male, the new measure's chief effect is more likely to be on female officers serving in male prisons. Howell says there are current cases of official misconduct stemming from female officers involved with male prisoners. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Kirk Dillard, a Hinsdale Republican, would make it a Class 3 felony, punishable by two to five years in prison, for guards to have sex with prisoners. A correctional officer also would lose his or her job if convicted. Thirty-two states have similar provisions. Many legislators were surprised to learn it wasn't a crime in Illinois to have sexual relations between prison guards and inmates, says Rep. Peter Roskam, a Republican from Wheaton, who had sponsored similar legislation in the House. "To say that it's consensual in some cases is nonsense," he says. "There's no more highly leveraged relationship than between guards and inmates." Mary Galligan State aid for legal immigrants called 'risky' A monthly check of $432 may not seem like much, but for Leonidas Perez, his wife and three children, it's everything. The 77-year-old Ecuador native doesn't say this. He can't. He doesn't speak English. But in Spanish he speaks fearfully of moving his family into the street, his only choice, he believes, if the government doesn't restore Supplemental Security Income and food stamps to legal immigrants like himself. In Illinois, about 16,000 legal immigrants will lose SSI and as many as 35,000 will lose their food stamps under the federal welfare bill passed last August. Perez knows and fears the future, but "many elderly [legal immigrants] don't understand their situation," says Rob Paral of the Latino Institute. "Some of those [that do] are just plain angry." Several hundred of them turned to the General Assembly last month for help, rallying for restoration of cuts. "We're hopeful," says Paral. We're not, says the governor's office. Two measures to help legal immigrants went nowhere this spring. "To approve legislation, at this point, would be risky," says Mike Lawrence, Gov. Jim Edgar's press secretary. "We don't know for sure what's going to happen at the federal level." Edgar doesn't support programs he believes the state can't afford. Nevertheless, he's sympathetic to the plight of legal immigrants. He helped lobby the federal government to restore cuts. Indeed, President Bill Clinton wants to restore about $10 billion in SSI cuts for disabled legal immigrants. If Congress agrees, Paral estimates the number of people affected will drop to about 4,200. Still, this doesn't address the loss of food stamps. "All that I ask for," says Perez, "is a place to live in dignity and something to eat." Jennifer Davis and John Micek 12 / June 1997 Illinois Issues WEB SITE OF THE MONTH Policy wonk HQ Interested in the scoop on the budget deal in Washington? Need to find out the latest skinny on reform of welfare reform? Head for Policy.com, one of the most comprehensive sites for policy wonks on the World Wide Web. Located at http://www.policy.com, the site offers information, analysis, forums, news, sources, job opportunities and a "Virtual Congress," which in name alone seems a step up from the one we have. Among the features available at Policy.com are: • Policy Newsstand, which provides timely abstracts and tables of contents from leading articles in leading policy journals. The newsstand includes such heavyweight journals as The Economist, The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation and the National Review. • News & Events, which gives you the latest scoop on three of the leading policy news stories and two policy-related events. • Issue of the Week, which offers in-depth research and an online guide for a particular issue, such as affirmative action, crime, health care and social security. • Issues Analysis, which gives constantly updated information and a guide to Internet sources. There also are links to think tanks, advocacy groups, universities, associations, state and national government sites and the media. Newly added to Issues Analysis is a comprehensive guide on campaign finance. • Virtual Congress is the place for briefing books on significant legislation, with the positions of sponsors, Congressional leadership and the president. You can even cast a vote for or against the legislation.
So, become a virtual member of
Congress — you don't even have
to hit up foreign millionaires to get elected.
LEGAL EAGLES Plenty of torts, not enough thank-yous "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers," wrote Shakespeare in "Henry VI, part 2." That would take a while in Illinois. The Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission reports that:
• In 1996, the commission launched 6,801 investigations for possible disciplinary action against attorneys, an increase of 5 percent over 1995. • The complaints were made against 4,451 attorneys, or about 7 percent of the total registered in Illinois. Most of the attorneys were the subject of a single investigation, but 116 of them were the targets of five or more investigations. • The Supreme Court ordered 115 disciplinary sanctions (against 114 attorneys) in 1996, including 44 disbarments, 51 suspensions, nine censures, nine probations and two reprimands. • Of the 114 attorneys who were sanctioned, 18 had been disciplined before. • The leading causes of complaints against attorneys were: neglect, 1,267 cases; incompetence, 649; failure to communicate with client, 577; fraudulent or deceptive activity, 552; and excessive fees, 514. There were 98 investigations of complaints against attorneys for "failing to treat others with courtesy." Donald Sevener Illinois Issues June 1997 / 13 BRIEFLY PRESSBOX Gift boxes for state agency officials; many states' lotteries misrepresent odds The Associated Press reported in May that state agency bureaucrats received more than $24,500 in free food and gifts from lobbyists last year. The AP, which spent two months analyzing 4,200 records and tabulating lobbyists' expenditures by computer, reported that in 1996 lobbyists spent $1.3 million on Illinois officials. Not surprising, the state's elected officials were among the top recipients. But AP reporters Ray Long and Matt Kelley also found that 217 unelected, mostly low-profile agency bureaucrats were treated to meals, trinkets, travel and tickets. Many of the agency officials who received free meals and gifts are high- ranking managers, including Department of Nuclear Safety Director Tom Ortciger. He topped the 1996 list with nearly $1,400 in free meals from the firm hired to build Illinois' low-level radioactive waste repository. Ortciger told the AP in February that he and his staff had stopped accepting free meals from Chem-Nuclear Systems. "We are not going to have that perception that we are being entertained by them," Ortciger said. The AP also found that lower-level bureaucrats took scores of free meals from lobbyists. Among them: Conrad Vespa, who heads the Department of Revenue's office of technology advancement. Vespa, who made $62,552 last year, oversees First of America Bank's $2.1 million contract to process tax checks. He got nearly $200 worth of free meals and four tickets from First of America to watch the playoff-bound St. Louis Cardinals last year. Vespa told AP that taking the free meals and tickets was not a conflict because the state treasurer's office awarded the bank's contract. "I don't think this is something that's going to influence any decision I make," Vespa said. There is nothing illegal about lobbyists giving agency officials freebies. But, AP reported, "State bureaucrats can be tempting targets for lobbyists because they can control millions of dollars in contracts and write regulations affecting businesses." Long and Kelley write that "the question of where legal lobbying crosses the line into bribery is at the heart of an ongoing scandal at the state Public Aid Department." In that case, one mid-level agency manager has pleaded guilty to bribery- related charges for taking gifts from a state contractor. Prosecutors say the department overpaid Management Services of Illinois Inc. more than $7 million. MSI and its owners have pleaded innocent to criminal charges. Illinois law does require lobbyists to report all of their spending on state officials, making it one of the broadest disclosure laws in the nation. But, according to AP, the federal government and several other states bar employees from accepting most gifts. The New Republic reports that states have gotten into the business of lying to their citizens about the chances of winning state-sponsored lotteries because they don't have the courage to cut spending or raise taxes. In the magazine's May 19 issue, Robyn Gearey writes that the 38 state lotteries, including the District of Columbia, have been enormously successful at raising money: Last year, they raked in more than $35 billion. But they also spend big bucks on advertising: nearly half a billion dollars a year. And, according to Gearey, much of that advertising misleads potential customers about the odds of winning. "About a half-dozen states, Virginia, Ohio and Wisconsin among them, do cite realistic odds in their ads," Gearey writes. "But the vast majority advertise only the top prize, which can be as high as $45 million in states like New York and California, and then give the odds of winning the lowest prize in the game, usually a free ticket. The odds for these small prizes can be as good as one in four, but they have nothing to do with a player's chances of winning the big prize; for instance, the odds that one of the hopeful in New York would walk away with the $45 million top award were one in 12.9 million." The federal government does not regulate such advertising. And states work hard to ensure that citizens believe the state lottery is "the one time everyone has a fair shot at making it." In fact, Gearey argues, state lotteries are the "antithesis of the American Dream. They are mechanisms by which the state seduces its citizens with the promise of riches, suckering them into gambling away their income and their unemployment checks on games that offer an almost infinitesimal chance of winning big. You are more likely to be struck by lightening, or to find a pearl in an oyster, than you are to win a multimillion-dollar jackpot." Gearey also counters the argument that state lotteries are an efficient means of raising dollars for social good. "On average, only 34 cents of every dollar spent on a state lottery actually makes its way into a state treasury. No one is really in the lottery business to help the elderly, improve the schools or save endangered species;those are just the sugar that make state-sponsored gambling easier to swallow." The American Prospect, meanwhile, published an essay by John D. Donahue in its May-June issue that argues competition among states for gambling dollars is merely one of a number of examples of devolution gone awry. Donahue, an associate professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, is the author of Disunited States, which is to be published this month by Basic 14 / June 1997 Illinois Issues
Quotable:
Photograph by Terry Farmer Former Gov. James R. Thompson's directive to reporters at the state Capitol on the first day of House committee hearings into the conduct of former Supreme Court Chief Justice James D. Heiple. Thompson, now with the Chicago law firm Winston & Strawn, was retained by Heiple to represent him before the committee. PRESSBOX CONTINUED Books. Another version of his disquisition on devolution appears in the May issue of The Atlantic Monthly In The American Prospect, he writes that our current national consensus that the states should take the lead on most policy issues is badly timed. He argues the states' borders are becoming more, not less permeable. "Issues in which other states' citizens have no stakes, and hence no valid claim to a voice," are becoming rare. He cites environmental programs, cost-effective crime prevention and economic development in the form of legalized gambling. Donahue points to the parable of the English "commons" to make his point. That parable was first invoked by biologist Garrett Hardin, who noted that self-interest "will lead a herdsman to increase his herd even if the commons is overburdened, since he alone benefits from raising an extra animal, but shares the consequent damage to the common pasture. As each farmer follows the same logic, overgrazing wrecks the commons." The section on legalized gambling should be of particular interest to Illinoisans. Donahue details the long-running one-upsmanship between this state and Iowa over riverboat gambling dollars. He writes that as of last year, some form of gambling was legal in all but two states (Utah and Hawaii) and that the total annual amount wagered in the United States is about $500 billion. There are obvious benefits for the states that run lotteries or sanction casinos. Those benefits include jobs and additional revenue. In 1994, taxes paid on casinos alone yielded $1.4 billion for states and localities. Further, legalized gambling can produce political benefits in the form of campaign contributions. There also are costs in increased gambling addiction and crime. "But shouldn't we leave it to officials in each state to tally up the expected costs and benefits and make decisions that sum to the right national policy?" Donahue asks. "The logic of the commons makes this less than likely. If a state loosens its own restrictions on gambling, it gains the benefits in jobs, tax revenues and political favor. It also suffers costs — but not all the costs. When citizens of other states buy the lottery tickets and visit the casinos, they leave their money behind when they return home, but take their gambling-related problems back with them." Donahue concludes that "it's questionable whether exclusive state control over so massive a change in the legal economy's scope, with such sweeping implications for our culture, ever made much sense." Peggy Boyer Long Illinois Issues June 1997 / 15 BRIEFLY BARN AGAIN Smithsonian exhibit brings treasured symbol of our roots on tour of Illinois
For sixty years the pine lumber barn
had held cows, horses, hay, harness,
from Carl Sandburg's The People, Yes
The Greene County Historical and Genealogical Society will host the exhibition in Carrollton through June 21. The exhibition will move to the McHenry County Historical Society in Union for display from July 12 to August 23, and then end its Illinois tour at the Galena/Jo Daviess County Historical Society & Museum in Galena from September 13 through October 25. The Illinois Humanities Council is helping coordinate the tour and special related activities such as driving tours of area barns, barn-building demonstrations, oral-history projects and barn dances. Beverley Scobell
YOUR TAX $ AT WORK It pays to be a judge in Illinois. On average, it pays $60,371.53 to be exact. That was the highest average salary for the 120,461 state employees (excluding universities) in Illinois last year, according to figures compiled by Comp- troller Loleta Didrickson. The Illinois judiciary, with a total 1996 payroll of $149.3 million, had 2,474 employees, 689 of whom earned more than $100,000. Overall, working for the state brought a more modest — but still respectable — average salary of $27,943. Most state workers (36,779) fell in the $30,000-$49,999 range, followed by those earning under $15,000 (32,352). State officers, which include elected officials and heads departments, drew the second-highest average salary: $49,043. Next highest was the Department of Nuclear Safety, where 54.4 percent of employees made more than $45,000 a year, compared to a statewide average of 15.9 percent, according to Didrickson.
Those who work for the state legislature might aspire tc
work for the governor. Average pay for the 1,009 legislate
employees was $25,218, while the 140 involved in guberm
torial toil made $32,834, on average. Actually, those who
work for the governor might aspire — salarywise — to
work for the lieutenant governor, where the 37 employees
last year averaged $35,523. 16 / June 1997 Illinois Issues
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
