Politics and Opinion from Champaign-Urbana

The ABA's PR Lady

Mark Shelden — Wed, 14 May 2008 12:43:53 -0500

RSW mentioned this in a previous post and some of you might have heard some of these comments on WDWS. I've put a media file link below that hopefully you can listen to, although I'm hardly a pro in such things. The gist of it is that Julia Rietz at last week's County Facilities meeting tore into those who would dare to question how much our attorneys are charging us. There's a lot to get into here, and I'm going to try to do it over the next couple days. Suffice it to say in this post that we've now paid Duane Morris over $600,000 to represent us on various issues related to the nursing home. Not only should County Board members be questioning that, they'd be remiss if they didn't.

McCain and Global Warming

redstatewannabe — Wed, 14 May 2008 10:48:22 -0500

The editors at NRO wrote a bit about McCain's recent speech, and his cap-and-trade policy proposal. They were not impressed. Their piece concludes:

The scariest sentence in the speech was: “If the efforts to negotiate an international solution that includes China and India do not succeed, we still have an obligation to act.” This is posturing in the place of thought. It puts us in the worst possible negotiating position, and confirms that Sen. McCain is not engaging practically with the costs and benefits of his own policy. It indicates a foolish willingness to sacrifice trillions of dollars on the altar of fashionable, though uniformed, opinion and political expediency.

Once you leave reason behind, there is no logical stopping point, and his Democratic opponent will always be willing to one-up him. Sen. Clinton’s reaction to his speech (literally before it was even delivered) was: “Senator McCain’s proposal simply does not go far enough…”

Dems Win Another Special Election

IlliniPundit — Tue, 13 May 2008 21:39:15 -0500

Anyone want to guess when the national Republicans are going to learn their lesson?

Democrats picked up a northern Mississippi House seat in one of the most conservative-minded districts in the country Tuesday night -- an upset that will reverberate darkly through a House Republican caucus already reeling from losses in special elections in Illinois and Louisiana.

With 411 of 462 precincts reporting, the Democratic nominee, Prentiss County Chancery Clerk Travis Childers, leads Republican Greg Davis, 52 to 48 percent. The Associated Press has called the race for Childers.

The victory marks the Democrats’ third straight special election pickup in three months. It will be a serious blow to the Republican Party’s already-flagging morale and will surely prompt a new round of finger-pointing among the already fractured GOP caucus.

The special election was held to fill the seat of former Rep. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who was appointed to serve out the remainder of Sen. Trent Lott’s term last December. Wicker had never faced a competitive race since first elected in 1994, and the district gave President Bush 62 percent of the vote in 2004.

My guess is 2012.

UPDATE: A remarkable statement from the Chair of the NRCC:

Think about this Cole statement - "Democrats are running as conservatives, and Republicans can't beat 'em." So take that club out the GOP arsenal heading into November.

That tells me two things. The first is that conservative ideas are still popular, at least in some parts of the country. And the second is that national Republicans have no credibility to claim that they're conservative and Democrats aren't. And the reasons for that are clear: earmarks, corruption, out-of-control spending, entitlement expansion, border security, energy policy. And the list goes on and on. National Republicans, especially in the House and Senate, don't stand for anything. And when you don't stand for anything, you will be beaten in surprising places and in surprising ways by people who do stand for something, and you will have no standing to criticize them for doing so.

Rantoul HS, Champaign Unit 4 Want Sales Tax

IlliniPundit — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:36:03 -0500

Both Champaign Unit 4 and Rantoul Township High School boards have voted to support a November ballot question asking voters for a one percent sales tax increase to support education. Both Districts are using a miniscule amount of property tax relief to mask their request for the largest-possible tax increase, as have most other area school districts, and most media reports are emphasizing the property tax relief as if it somehow offsets the sales tax revenue which will be generated.

It will be interesting to see if the County Board puts the full one-percent increase on the ballot, or if they settle for a smaller amount.

And it will be interesting to see how long the "this is about property tax relief" storyline is allowed to play out before people realize that the sales tax revenues of a one percent increase are several times larger than the maximum amount of property tax relief allowable.

Open Thread (5/13/2008)

IlliniPundit — Tue, 13 May 2008 04:33:00 -0500

Tuesday, May 13, 2008.

Urbana Cell Phone Ban On Hold

IlliniPundit — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:43:23 -0500

The forces of reason and common sense have won a rare, if temporary, victory.

A proposed ordinance banning cell phone use while driving might be put off indefinitely by the city council.

Alderman Charlie Smyth, D-Ward 1, who proposed the ban, said the city might instead opt to take some interim steps while gathering information about how often traffic accidents occur due to cell phone use while driving.

In the meantime, the city council will consider enacting a distracted driving ordinance under which a person who gets into a traffic accident while talking on a cell phone or similar activity would be subject to a traffic ticket with a substantial fine of $500 or more, he said.

Yea!

Cities and Social Services Grants

IlliniPundit — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:40:59 -0500

Good article:

This coming fiscal year, Urbana expects to allocate $300,000 toward social service grants. That's an increase of $12,000 compared with the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

That level stands in contrast with Champaign, which this coming fiscal year plans to spend $113,000 on social service grants – but has announced that such grants will be ended, starting July 1, 2009.

Discuss.

CCNH and Medicaid

IlliniPundit — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:38:54 -0500

From yesterday's News-Gazette:

The Champaign County Nursing Home, which will have to borrow money from the county to stay afloat, could save money by altering its mix of clients to reduce Medicaid patients – which would go against its tradition of serving the poor.

About 60 percent of its residents are on Medicaid, up from 48 percent in 2000, the first year for which Administrator Andrew Buffenbarger has census records.

About 28 percent are private paid and 10 percent Medicare, which has a higher level of reimbursement.

Taking care of the less-well-off has been part of the county's mission since it ran a poor farm on the same site as county offices.

But the rising proportion of Medicaid residents is hard on the nursing home's finances, Buffenbarger said, because "Medicaid reimbursement is considerably lower than the cost of services."

In other words, if Buffenbarger filled every bed in the new $24 million facility with Medicaid patients, the nursing home would lose even more than the up to $100,000 a month it has lost in the last two years. Instead, the home has run with about 80 of 243 beds empty recently.

Additionally, Medicaid reimbursement has not only been cut by $600,000, it's months behind.

Discuss.

UPDATE: Big E has more thoughts here.

Some apparently expect the home to run on at least a break-even basis. But if that is the case, why is government involved at all? Is there a lack of private nursing home companies out there? Not likely. Why in the world would an impotent county government imagine that it is in a better position than a professional private company to run this operation? If the goal is to minimize expense to taxpayers, sell the damn thing to a professional operator and cut your losses.

It is not a little ironic that the idea of booting impoverished Medicaid recipients is being floated. If the goal of the facility is to provide refuge to those who would otherwise be out in the cold, this step would be absolutely contraindicated.

So what's it going to be, you dummies? A decision to provide heavily-subsidized care, or to make the facility a self-sufficient enterprise? The choices could not be more stark, but resolution will require courage and clear-thinking. I, for one, am not holding my breath.

Moderating Comments from Unregistered Users

IlliniPundit — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:54:30 -0500

I stayed away from IP.com this weekend, partly as a test to see how many trolls would show up in my absence to ruin otherwise constructive discussions.

Given what I've seen from over the weekend, and given my schedule over the next few weeks, I am now taking the draconian step of moderating all comments from unregistered users. Unregistered users are still welcome to comment, but their comments will not appear in a thread until and unless approved by an administrator. Registered users are free to comment without moderation.

Thank you, and I apologize for taking this step, which I hoped would never be necessary.

Open Thread (5/12/2008)

IlliniPundit — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:19:22 -0500

Monday, May 12, 2008.

Fill a Hole, Stop Up Another

Mark Shelden — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:21:46 -0500

If you caught last month's County Board meeting you would have heard Brad Jones suggest that we use the Nursing Home Construction Fund to make this year's Nursing Bond Payment. It probably confused a good number of people including most Board members. But it comes down to this. The County borrowed an extra $4 million for the nursing home to cover the costs of mold and HVAC repairs as well as increased legal fees and various cost overruns. This extra bond payment is being made out of the General Corp fund that had a fund balance last week of $70,000 (that's with receiving a loan from another County fund). Since there is still about $700,000 unspent from the bond sale, this makes a lot of sense.

At the finance meeting last week, they passed unanimously a resolution to do exactly what Jones suggested. But he didn't stop there. In light of the goofy expenditure for the new sign at the Nursing Home, the resolution passed cuts off all expenditures from the fund except for legal fees. There won't be any way for someone to spend the remaining money (about $400,000) on anything akin to the pricey sign that just went up. So next year we can make another payment from this fun, although the hope at that time will be that we'll have a nice settlement that will pay off a good portion of the $4 million.

This is on the consent agenda for the County Board meeting later this month. That means it's likely to pass without discussion. But it's a good move initiated by Jones and a nice response to the dual problems of a depleted County fund balance and outrageous spending decisions.

Chesley Gets Community Service

wayward — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:28:41 -0500

According to the News-Gazette, Brian Chesley received conditional discharge and 100 hours of community service.

A Rantoul teen convicted of resisting and obstructing police in Douglass Park in north Champaign more than a year ago has been sentenced to a year of conditional discharge and 100 hours of public service.

The sentence for Brian Chesley, 19, who also lives part time with a grandmother in Urbana, means he will have a misdemeanor conviction on his record but will not have to report to a probation officer for monitoring. It was the least restrictive sentence that Champaign County Judge John Kennedy could have imposed for the crimes.

What's interesting is that the Very Green candidate for CB 9 started out with a couple of felony charges and ended up with first offender's probation, meaning that he'll have no record if he successfully completes it. Chesley started out with an offer of diversion and ended up with a couple of misdemeanor convictions. I wonder if this has anything to do with the former getting Diana Lenik as a defense attorney and the latter getting Kirchner and Wyman?

Straight from the Candidate's Mouth

xian — Fri, 09 May 2008 07:48:09 -0500

"There was just an AP article posted that found how Senator Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again..."

Discuss.

Open Thread (5/9/2008)

IlliniPundit — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:33:00 -0500

Friday, May 9, 2008.

Friday Funnies

Joan Dykstra — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:05:31 -0500