BRIEFLY

GOOD CAUSE

Edgar campaign dollars will start Samaritan fund

Gov. Jim Edgar's decision to hand over to charity $1 million of his unused campaign fund is unprecedented. The retiring governor announced he will make the donation to Ronald McDonald House Charities for the creation of a Brenda Edgar Good Samaritan Fund, which will provide grants to not-for-profit organizations to pay for such efforts as emergency aid and health and safety promotion.

"People give gifts to charities, but I don't remember any gifts in the $100,000 range, let alone the million [dollar] range," says campaign finance watchdog Kent Redfield, assistant director of the Illinois Legislative Studies Center at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

The $1 million leaves the Edgar campaign fund a long way from zero. According to Redfield's figures, the fund stood at $2.8 million as of July 1,1998.

"What will be interesting will be to see what he [Edgar] does with the remainder," says Cynthia Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. "I think what he's done with the money, so far at least, is better than taking it and lobbying with it." Redfield's data shows that Edgar's predecessor, James R. Thompson, had $1.5 million when he left office in January 1991. Thompson has used most of his campaign money since leaving office for lobbying efforts and in other candidates' campaigns. As of July 1, Thompson had $10,048 in his still-active campaign fund.

Up until June 30, 1998, there were few restrictions on how retiring politicians in Illinois could spend leftover contributions. But last spring, the legislature approved a campaign finance reform package that closes the door on personal use of the funds. New candidates have missed the chance to spend campaign contributions on themselves. But established politicians who maintain political committees can continue to spend money collected before June 30, 1998, as they wish. Once a politician closes down the political committee, the use of the funds is limited to such restrictions as donating gifts to nonprofit charitable organizations or returning funds to contributors on a prorated basis.

Illinois has seen some decidedly less charitable uses of leftover campaign funds. According to Redfield's research, former state Sen. Frank Savickas, a Chicago Democrat, in office from 1971 to 1992, spent $164,000 in nonelection-related expenses after his Senate campaign days were over. Expenditures included $20,534 for a car and repairs, more than $3,000 for restaurant meals, $1,360 for Chicago Bears tickets and almost $1,500 for golf club dues. Campaign money spent for personal use is taxable.
Maureen Foertsch McKinney

Missouri ruling could impact Illinois reform Illinois reformers may find their efforts to overhaul campaign finance upstaged by the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for eastern Missouri ruled in favor of an organization called Shrink Missouri Government, which fought campaign contribution limits to legislative and statewide campaigns on the grounds that low restrictions obstruct free-speech rights. Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon will seek a Supreme Court appeal of the decision, says his spokesman Scott Holste. "If and when Illinois ever gets contribution limits, the courts have made it clear — and this is the clearest case —-that spending limits have to be set at levels the courts deem reasonable. The only thing is we can't tell what that limit is," says Cynthia Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. In Missouri, the statewide limits tossed out by the appellate court were approved by that state's legislature and voters in 1994. Individuals were limited to contributing up to $275 for candidates for state representative, $525 in state Senate races and $1,075 to candidates for statewide offices. The limits came in response to concerns that major contributors with plenty of cash to throw around had too much influence in the Capitol, But the appellate judges ruled 2-to-l that the state did not prove abuses had occurred and that the likelihood of that happening was not great enough to limit the constitutionally protected right to free speech, which includes political contributions. In a dissent in the Missouri ruling, Appellate Judge John R. Gibson warned that he sees little distinction between the $1,000 federal limits and Missouri's limits in statewide offices. Maureen Foertsch McKinney

8 / January 1999 Illinois Issues

LEGISLATIVE CHECKLIST

Vetoes overridden:
Religious freedom An unusual bipartisan team overturned Edgar's changes in the so-called religious freedom bill. Edgar wanted prison inmates excluded from the measure designed to ensure government could not interfere with religious practices without good cause. Edgar argued inmates would conduct gang activities under the guise of religious customs. But a cross-section of religious leaders and legislators countered that faith can play an important role in a convict's rehabilitation and that the state should not interfere. The veto over-ride sailed through the House with the combined support of odd-couple Democrat Lauren Beth Gash of Highland Park and Republican lame duck Peter Roskam of Wheaton. Senate sponsors of the override were Northbrook Republican Kathy Parker and Chicago Democrat Arthur Berman.

Local government liability Lawmakers also overrode Edgar's changes in a measure designed to hold local governments more accountable for accidents. The measure stems from a tragedy at a public pool in Zion where a 10-year-old boy drowned while lifeguards ignored bystanders' calls for help. Dismayed that current law immunized the park district from any responsibility, the Illinois Supreme Court asked legislators to rewrite the law so that units of government could be held accountable for the "willful and wanton conduct" of its employees. Edgar's veto limited the bill to employees at public pools. With the override, all public employees will now be covered by the law.

Vetoes not overridden:
Clean air Lawmakers approved an amendatory veto of a bill that would limit the Environmental Protection Agency and the state Pollution Control Board from writing rules to adhere to tighter air quality standards as required under the inter national Kyoto agreement. Should Congress approve the agreement, state agencies would have to get General Assembly approval prior to implementing such standards, but Edgar's veto allows them to continue to enforce the Clean Air Act.

Abortion Edgar won another one when legislators failed to override his veto of a bill that would have restricted the use of state money for abortions. The original bill would have required women seeking state funds for an abortion to report to police that their pregnancy was due to rape or incest. Sponsor Rep. Mary Lou Cowlishaw, a Republican from Naperville, determined she didn't have enough support to take a vote.

Proposals on hold:
Liquor A last-minute power play by Chicago Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz garnered big headlines, but his slap shot attempt to curtail competitors of his liquor distribution business didn't make it into the net. The Wirtz family owns distributor Judge & Dolph, which is facing competition in an industry where consolidation has given some distillers the size to do their own distribution to retailers. Wirtz wanted to give the state Liquor Control Commission oversight when a distiller wants to end a contract with a distributor. He hired the likes of former Gov. James R. Thompson, a Republican, and former state Senate President Philip Rock, a Democrat — and almost two dozen other big bucks lobbyists — to press his case during the short session. The House passed the measure, but the resulting publicity — and some legislators' concerns about appearances — sidetracked action in the Senate. For now.

Early retirement An early state employee retirement plan was floated as a way to help clear the personnel roster for incoming Republican Gov. George Ryan and new Secretary of State Jesse White, a Democrat. But House Speaker Michael Madigan never got on board, saying he found the $500 million estimate questionable, even assuming positions were to go unfilled and the new workers earned less than those replaced. The idea never got past the Pension Laws Commission, but backers believe they might have a shot in a possible mini-session this month. So far, however, Ryan has put the kibosh on the plan, saying too many valuable middle managers might take the payout.
Burney Simpson

Illinois Issues January 1999 / 9

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that lawyer and Chicago Alderman Edward Burke, chairman of the city council's Finance Committee, was paid at least $189,000 in fees while helping developer Joseph Beale, who got a $1.2 million subsidy and other aid from City Hall. Investigative reporters Chuck Neubauer and Charles Nicodemus wrote in their November 15 story that the total paid to Burke may have exceeded $300,000, and that Burke's wife, Anne, a state appellate judge, also received at least $17,000 from the developer. They also reported that Burke's lobbying efforts on Beale's behalf included writing a letter to a state official on city stationery

The Chicago Tribune tracked prosecutions in the cases of the 65 children who were murdered in the metropolitan area in 1993 and discovered justice was not always served. In a series that began November 15, the Tribune found that in those five years one-third of the killers have gone free. Among the reasons: police who couldn't do the job, juries that were reluctant to convict and witnesses who were unreliable. The series followed up on that newspaper's 1993 series, "Killing Our Children," which documented the lives and deaths of every Chicago-area child under the age of 15 who was murdered that year.
Peggy Boyer Long

Web Site of the Month Prepaying for college A new year begins. If one of your resolutions is to set aside money for your child's college education, the state of Illinois has a way to help defray inflationary costs of tuition and fees. Go to www.collegeillinois.com to find out how you can buy a four-year, $75,000 college education for less than $15,000. College Illinois!, a program administered by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, gives families a way to lock in the cost of tomorrow's college tuition at today's prices. Choose how many semesters of college (one to nine) you want to purfchase now, and when your child is ready to attend, the state guarantees payment of all undergraduate tuition and mandatory fees at any public university or community college in Illinois for that length of time. Click on the FAQs (frequently asked questions) icon to find most of the program's details outlined in clear question-and-answer form: Who can purchase a contract? Can I make changes at a later date? What if my child wants to go to an out of state school? What if my child decides not to go to college at all? The FAQs page links to the answers to these and dozens of other questions. To download an application form, go to the Enroll page, which also includes the master agreement for the prepaid tuition program. The Cost Calculator page estimates future tuition costs at state colleges and universities. The projections assume a 6.6 percent rate of inflation. For example, a tuition contract bought before January 31 (the end of this year's fixed price enrollment) for a child born this year would cost $14,883, with payment plans stretching as long as 10 years. By the time that baby is 18, tuition for a science or engineering degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is projected to cost $76,414. That's an investment plan worth moving to the top of your New Year's resolution list. Beverley Scobell

10 / January 1999 Illinois Issues

Electric news
News junkies should prepare to get a greater share of their fix from electronic sources. At least that's the word out of a recent survey of media representatives on public policy issues. The survey of 16 editors, reporters and executives from Illinois media outlets was conducted through the Center for Urban Research and Learning out of Loyola University of Chicago. Here's a sampling of what some of the journalists predict is in store in the media future: Access to more raw source material, such as the Starr Report; more online and less print coverage; more computer-assisted reporting to pinpoint trends; and more "electronic garbage that the public confuses with credible journalism."

" I want hard news: What happened today, and how does that affect my life. "

Jan Flapan, president of the League of Women Voters of Illinois, from a companion survey of nonprofit groups for the Center for Urban Research and Learning.

This 1908 photograph shows the urn recently purchased for the Dana-Thomas House State Historic Site in Springfield. Frank Lloyd Wright designed 12 of these urns for customers. Susan Dana bought two for her Wright-designed home. The second urn is in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England.

Urn returns to Wright place Another piece of Illinois history is back home. A hand-hammered copper urn, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and bought in 1904 for Susan Dana's Springfield house, was purchased on December 10 at a Christie's International auction in New York City for $286,000, a world-record price for one of Wright's copper urns. Former Gov. James R. Thompson led a fundraising drive prior to the sale. He and Donald Hallmark, site manager for the now-state-owned Dana-Thomas House State Historic Site, made the winning bid. The urn is one of two that Susan Dana bought. Both left the house in a 1943 auction of many of Dana's personal possessions. A Springfield collector purchased them, then sold them at auction in 1986. At that time, according to staff of the state Historic Preservation Agency, the department that administers the house, Lord Peter Palumbo of Great Britain paid more than $80,000 for the Dana urn. Thompson was instrumental in purchasing the house as a state historic site in 1981 and in securing the funds for a three-year renovation that began in 1988. All but seven pieces of the original Wright-designed furniture — three dining room chairs, a straight-back chair, two lamps and the matching urn are now back in the Dana-Thomas House. Beverley Scobell

Illinois Issues January 1999 / 11

REPORTS
The Chicago metropolitan region has gotten considerable attention of late. So the release of yet another couple of reports on the subject would seem to warrant little reason to stir. But late last year, two groups issued what could constitute a manifesto of sorts on the future of the area that encompasses the state's largest city. At the very least, these most recent analyses of problems and potential cures could lend perspective to issues raised by urban growth and help foster cooperative solutions between city and suburb.

The Commercial Club: thinking regionally
The Commercial Club of Chicago has updated the famous "Plan of Chicago" by looking far beyond the lakefront — indeed, far beyond the borders of the city itself. Daniel Burnham's blueprint for the development of an urban garden, issued in 1909 with the support of the business group, envisioned the creation of lakefront parks as key to Chicago's cultural and economic future. Now the Commercial Club has endorsed a long-range strategic guide for the entire metropolitan region. The central premise of the report, "Chicago Metropolis 2020: Preparing Metropolitan Chicago for the 21st Century," is that all sections — city and suburb — need one another to enhance the economic and social vitality of the whole. And that private and public interests will need to work together to address the social, as well as the physical infrastructure of the region.
Among the recommendations:
• Create a new regional agency to coordinate land use and transportation planning; provide financial incentives for infrastructure investments that serve regional goals.
• Boost investments in regional public transit.
• Increase air traffic capacity at O'Hare and Midway airports; plan and acquire land to meet future demand for air service.
• Promote affordable housing throughout the region with construction and financing help.
• Explore approaches to regional tax base sharing; improve the regional property tax assessment system.
• Reform school funding to reduce the overreliance on property taxes.

Many of the recommendations, including private support for housing and child care programs, require efforts from businesses — which may not be feasible — and cooperation among state and local governments — which may not be politically palatable. Still, it's worth remembering that architect Daniel Burnham, who encouraged politicians in his day to make no little plans, didn't get everything he wanted either. But what he did get is well worth having today.

Woodstock Institute: sharing in the boom
It should be no surprise that the Chicago region has its haves and have-nots. And that's the conclusion of a new report by the Chicago-based Woodstock Institute. Jobs are continuing to flow out of the city and older metro communities into the outer suburban ring, according to the institute's researchers. Such job sprawl has been occurring for the past 20 years, but the institute argues the pace has quickened in the last decade.

"The Chicago metropolitan area, as a whole, has been a major participant in the nation's economic expansion," the report concludes. But some sectors are suffering, primarily lower-income suburbs and suburbs with relatively high percentages of African-American residents.

The institute, a think-tank on urban concerns, also calls for closer coordination on policy across the region on such issues as economic development and racial discrimination. The report was funded by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Last year, Illinois Issues' examination of regionalism from a statewide perspective also was funded in part by a grant from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The magazine explored who we are as Illinoisans (May, pages 12 and 21), the historical roots of regionalism (July/August, page 12) and how certain issues have served to foster sectionalism (September, page 27).
Peggy Boyer Long

12 / January 1999 Illinois Issues

Fire jeopardizes historic preservation
When a fire blazed through the historic Pullman railcar works on Chicago's South Side on December 1, the state was about to start a $3.4 million preservation project, part of a plan to turn the site into a transit museum.

Those plans are on hold now, as state officials wait for engineers' reports on whether the building can be salvaged.

The sleeping cars produced at the Pullman factory revolutionized longdistance travel in the late 1800s, and the planned community that George Pullman created for his workers was the ultimate company town. Major labor struggles at the factory in the 1890s and 1930s helped make the names of some memorable American characters, including labor organizer Eugene Debs, legendary attorney Clarence Darrow and civil rights leader Asa Philip Randolph, who organized the first black union. After a 12-year organizing drive, the Pullman company recognized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1937.

The Pullman company shut down the original plant in 1957 but continued to make and repair railcars in Chicago until 1981. The state bought the original Pullman works in 1991 for $1.3 million and has since spent another $1.5 million on minor repairs. "Mostly, we've been playing catch-up with Mother Nature up to now," says Susan Mogerman, director of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. If the state goes forward with the preservation, the opening of a museum on the site would still be years — and tens of millions of dollars — away, says Mogerman. Dan Weissmann

Neighborhood activists who live near Chicago 's old South Side Pullman factory building argue redevelopment of the site as a transportation history center will give an economic boost to their area. Bob Fioretti, board president of the Historic Pullman Foundation, says of the project: "It'll provide jobs." Fioretti's father worked at the Pullman plants in the 1920s. The state is waiting on engineering reports before deciding how to proceed.

Illinois Issues January 1999 / 13