Editorial Roundup: Illinois

Arlington Heights Daily Herald. March 17, 2022.

Editorial: Another departure at the top gives new life to Illinois tollway's reform efforts

It is tempting to chortle 'œwhere have we seen this before?'ť in the wake of the resignation this week of the Illinois Tollway's short-lived executive director.

But there's a much more productive way to look at the changes taking place at the top of the transportation agency.

Just three years into a highly touted shake-up aimed at giving Illinoisans new faith in the tollway, Executive Director Jose Alvarez resigned Tuesday, just weeks after the departure and replacement of board Chairman Will Evans. The two leave in their wake plenty of unsettling business.

Evans stubbed his toe in his first days on the job by voting on a project that involved a company with ties to a former colleague. Then, he upended the organization last year with a request, granted by the tollway board, to give him more control over hiring and day-to-day management.

Alvarez, a former executive at the Chicago Housing Authority, drew criticism early in his administration when he hired at least nine former CHA colleagues, sometimes creating new positions for them at high six-figure salaries. And, in 2020, a state monitor criticized the tollway for its handling of bids for two construction projects.

So, new board Chairwoman Dorothy Abreu has plenty of work cut out for her to achieve the goals of the makeover Gov. J.B. Pritzker started almost as soon as he was elected in 2018. But it's far from an impossible task.

The issues that emerged in Evans' and Alvarez' tenures are not insignificant, but some mistakes seem inevitable in reform of this magnitude and to an extent, they have given Abreu something especially useful -- issues to watch for as she oversees the hiring of a new executive director and an opportunity to make clear from the start the distinctions between her role and that of the tollway's day-to-day administrative team.

No one is ever excited about having to take a do-over on an important project. At the same time, a fresh start can help an organization move in the right directions when early efforts don't turn out as successfully as everyone hopes.

The arrival of a new board chairwoman and the opportunity to bring in a new executive director give tollway leaders a chance to learn from the mistakes of the past three years, while remembering there have been successes, too. As Evans noted on his way out, the tollway still is managing major projects 'œon time and within budget.'ť

This is a reasonable foundation and still far more positive than the reports we were following in the last half of the previous decade. We wish Abreu well in taking advantage of it as she continues an important reorganization process.

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Chicago Tribune. March 18, 2022.

Editorial: Governor after governor has failed to reform the Illinois Tollway. When will promises become action?

Reform is meaningful only when the politician pledging it actually follows through. In the case of the Illinois Tollway, governors on both sides of the aisle have vowed to reform the troubled agency dating back to the 1990s. Yet each one of them proved to Illinoisans that their promises were nothing but political blather.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker is the latest to join the line. After taking office in 2019, he appointed former Peoples Gas President Will Evans as the Tollway's board chairman and backed former Chicago Housing Authority CEO Jose Alvarez as the agency's executive director. 'œIt's a new day for the Illinois Tollway,'ť Pritzker said after appointing Evans. 'œI'm proud to usher in a new wave of transparency and accountability at this critical agency.'ť

New wave of transparency and accountability? Far from it.

Evans embarked on a power grab in which he commandeered authority over the agency's day-to-day operations as well as billions of dollars in contracts. That left Alvarez's authority significantly weakened. Evans also voted on a hefty Tollway contract involving an engineering firm where he once worked, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Meanwhile, Alvarez made sure nine of his former CHA colleagues got well-paying jobs at the agency amounting to an overall tab of $1.3 million, the Daily Herald reported Wednesday.

Both men got their jobs after receiving strong endorsements from former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker, according to the Sun-Times. As it turns out, Hooker had his own baggage. In the fall of 2020, he joined the list of people under indictment for their alleged role in the ComEd bribery scheme that ultimately led to charges against former House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Evans stepped down in February, and Alvarez did the same last week. Pritzker appointed bank executive Dorothy Abreu to replace Evans. No one knows if this is finally the 'œnew day'ť at the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority that Pritzker pledged to bring about after his ascent to the Governor's Mansion in 2019. But history tells us we should keep our expectations on a tight leash.

As far back as the 1980s, the Tollway had a reputation for pinstripe patronage. Republican Jim Thompson was governor at the time, and the agency doled out lucrative no-bid bond deals to insiders and firms that generously donated to Big Jim's campaign fund. In the 1990s, fellow Republican Jim Edgar took over as governor and promised to reform the agency. But the actions he took amounted to anything but reform. He hired his buddy and former campaign fundraiser, Robert Hickman, as the agency's executive director. A bevy of conflict-of-interest scandals at the Tollway ensued, including news that an engineering firm that Hickman's son had joined was awarded millions of dollars in Tollway contracts. Edgar ended up firing Hickman.

When Democrat Rod Blagojevich became governor, he promised Illinoisans he would, you guessed it, reform the Tollway. But under Blagojevich's watch, business partners of the governor's chief fundraiser, Tony Rezko, began getting the rights to run fast-food franchises at newly renovated tollway oases. The feds started an investigation into those contracts. And the 2009 indictment of Blagojevich included allegations that he tried to use a major tollway expansion to extract $500,000 in fundraising help from a highway contractor. Blago's out of prison but don't expect Tollway officials to look to him for reform advice anytime soon.

Under GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner, little changed at the Tollway. In 2018, a state Senate committee looked into questionable no-bid contracts and patronage at the agency. In one instance, a multimillion dollar no-bid public relations subcontract was given to a company owned by the wife of Michael McAuliffe, a longtime GOP Illinois House representative. The committee also asked about the agency's decision to give an engineering job to Laura Durkin, a former furniture designer and the sister-in-law of House Republican leader Jim Durkin, as well as a $157 million contract awarded to a company that employed the adult children of two prominent Tollway officials and donated to charities run by two people who were on the Tollway board at the time.

Voters don't elect Tollway leadership. But they do elect governors, and they put their trust in those governors to make the right choices about who is on the agency's board, who chairs that board, and who is the Tollway's executive director. And for as long as we can remember, the agency has been mired in mismanagement and scandal.

It's worth reminding, by the way, that the tollways aren't even supposed to be tollways anymore. Tolls were supposed to be temporary until the bonds used to build the highways were paid off. By 1973, they were supposed to become freeways. 'œToll free in '73'³ was the agency's slogan back then.

We're not holding our breath for those freeways, even for '23, but we're still waiting for the Tollway reform that governor after governor has continued to promise. If it doesn't come, it'll be on the shoulders of voters to hold Pritzker and the rest of Springfield accountable.

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Chicago Sun-Times. March 20, 2022.

Editorial: Illinois lawmakers should pass a state child tax credit

Tens of thousand of Illinois children sank into poverty after monthly federal child tax credit payments ended. With inflation squeezing Illinois families, the General Assembly should take action. So should Congress.

138,000.

That's how many children in Illinois sank back into poverty after monthly federal child tax credit payments ended in December, according to one estimate. Another estimate pegged the number at 150,000. Nationwide, 3.7 million children are in families that lost these payments of $250 to $300 a month depending on the age of the child.

'œGiving families that extra boost each month works,'ť as Joanna A. Ain, associate director of policy for Washington, D.C.-based Prosperity Now, told us. Her group and others have been pushing Congress to resurrect the monthly payments and make them permanent, a move we endorse. They aren't hopeful Congress will act anytime soon, nor are we.

Reinstating this vital lifeline for some of the country's neediest people is unlikely because it's tied up with President Joe Biden's massive Build Back Better initiative, which is all but dead.

There is something state lawmakers can do, however: Pass a state child tax credit. This was a key component of Gov. J.B. Pritzker's platform when he was running for governor and later when he tried unsuccessfully to get the income tax referendum on the ballot.

While what's being proposed in Springfield is not as generous as what families had been receiving at the federal level, a $600 state child tax credit would help folks in need at a time when inflation is severely squeezing household budgets. Lower-wage workers usually spend, rather than save, any bump in income, so not only would this help struggling Illinois families, it would also stimulate private sector economic growth.

Dozens of lawmakers have signed onto the legislation in the Illinois Senate (SB3774) and House (HB4920), which would create a child dependent tax credit and expand the earned income tax credit. There's ample evidence the federal 'œrefundable'ť earned income tax credit has become one of the country's more effective anti-poverty programs.

Helping families pay for basics

A state child tax credit would help Chicagoan Susana and her family. The extra $500 a month she and her husband received when the federal child tax credit payments were still flowing helped them pay for the basics, including utility bills and backpacks for her two middle school and high school children.

Some of the money also went to ComEd after the family received a disconnection notice. 'œWe weren't able to pay off all of the debt, but we were able to pay a lot of it,'ť she said through an interpreter.

The family was 'œreally stressed economically'ť when COVID first hit because Susana's husband lost his factory job, and that stress has not abated. Her husband got a job at a restaurant but has been getting at most, 32 to 35 hours a week, not nearly enough to pay all the bills.

'œA lot of families are still living day to day,'ť said Susana, who works for a group that helps low-income families. 'œWe and many families, we still have debt from last year that we're still paying.'ť

She said the current narrative in the media is that jobs are plentiful and employers can't find enough workers to cover shifts, but that has not been her family's experience. Another common misperception is that the working poor won't spend government assistance like this appropriately.

A boost to the economy

Research shows that recipients of the federal child tax credit spent the money immediately on everyday expenses, boosting the economy overall, helping small businesses stay afloat and bringing in additional sales tax that helps funds government.

'œPeople want to be able to work, they want to be able to get to work, they want to be able to do their jobs,'ť Ain said.

A state child tax credit would provide critical assistance to Illinois residents who just want to do their jobs, by helping them get to and from work, pay for day care, buy groceries, and cover rising housing and utility costs.

If the General Assembly passes the bills as currently drafted, 4.8 million people in Illinois - 1.9 million of them children - would benefit, according to Ralph M. Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability.

Once fully implemented, the $415 million annual cost of the legislation would be far less than the $1 billion economic benefit, Matire said. 'œIt's a pretty high return on investment'ť for people who've been greatly impacted by the pandemic, he added.

State lawmakers, before adjourning this spring, should pass this legislation - and help those 138,000 Illinois children and their families stay out of poverty.

END