Governor Quinn pledged $10 million towards kickstarting the Chicago River cleanup effort this week, but don't expect to use this bridge as a diving board anytime soon. more ›

Gov. Pat Quinn delivered his 2013 budget to the Illinois General Assembly yesterday, calling for a nine percent reduction across the board in agency spending, the closure of 59 state facilities, and at least 700 more layoffs of state employees. more ›

WGN's Jonathon Brandmeier challenged Gov. Pat Quinn to swallow a spoonful of cinnamon this morning. more ›

Governor Pat Quinn gave his “State of the State” speech today to the Illinois General Assembly, stressing the idea that despite its massive problems, “Illinois is moving forward.” more ›

Quinn appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" yesterday, and host Joe Scarborough asked why he gave tax breaks to Sears, the Chicago Board of Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to keep them in the state. more ›

Gov. Pat Quinn vetoed a bill that would have raised ComEd rates to pay for the company's infrastructure updates, while blocking government oversight. more ›

The guard troops will use eight helicopters and ground support to deliver supplies to areas isolated by flooding. more ›

AFSCME workers picketed protested Gov. Quinn's rescinding their pay raises yesterday. more ›

Governor Quinn filed an amendatory veto Tuesday to delay a bill that would remove gubernatorial appointees serving beyond their term limits. The bill, sponsored by Senate President John Cullerton, would have given the governor 30 days to replace some 700 appointees, many whose terms expired months or even years ago. The Tribune reports Quinn filed the veto to the bill to delay the measure for a few months in order to have time to recruit people for the vacant posts. more ›

Cubs Executive Chairman Tom Ricketts continued to plead his case on Monday, telling the Tribune's editorial board that there is no Plan B to funding Wrigley modernization. He reiterated that the tax revenue would come exclusively from Cubs fans, while again failing to mention that the forgone tax dollars will mean shortfalls wherever those dollars currently go. While Ricketts claimed it would create 1000 jobs, the loss of revenue flowing to the schools, police and parks mean these city entities would probably have to cut 1000 employees. more ›

Yesterday Governor Pat Quinn praised his former Chief of Staff Jerry Stermer, who resigned last weekend over alleged ethics violations. Though Quinn let his chief resign, he said he wouldn’t have fired Stermer over the improper emails sent. Quinn said he would’ve rather suspended Stermer instead, but told the Sun Times, “everyone should follow their conscience, and Jerry Stermer is to me a person of great conscience. ... He, on his own, voluntarily wanted to do it this way.” Quinn then went on to name Michelle Saddler, Secretary of the Department of Human Services, as his new chief of staff. “There is no one better-suited to continue my mission of creating jobs, supporting Illinois’ economic recovery and protecting our most vulnerable residents,” Quinn said via press release. more ›

State legislators are back at work in Springfield, trying to hammer out a budget that they failed to approve before they adjourned earlier this month. But state Dems are facing a May 31 deadline after which a budget will require a super-majority to pass. Which is probably why Gov. Quinn is pressing for a Friday deadline to cobble together and approve the new budget. more ›

Days later, fall-out continues from the call to have the National Guard mobilized in Chicago to help curb the city's violence as various government and community leaders weigh in on the matter. more ›

If Gov. Quinn gets his wish, we could soon be paying a little extra tax on music and movies downloaded from online retailers like iTunes or Amazon. The impact of a tax wouldn't be immediate but would build over time. Or so supporters of the tax hope. The tax was part of a bundle of tax proposals - estimated at $391 million if tax change laws - that Quinn has been working on in an effort to fill the state's $13 billion budget hole. more ›

Though any suspense was taken away when Gov. Quinn made clear his desire for her to be the pick, the Democratic State Central Committee still went through the formal process yesterday and officially nominated Sheila Simon to be the party's Lt. Governor nominee for the fall general election. Simon is the daughter of the late U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Paul Simon. Said Quinn after Simon's official nomination: “Sheila Simon is someone who I think is a very special person for our state, committed to reform, a person who understands what it is to live from paycheck to paycheck, to be a strong advocate for working men and women all over our state...I think we have an excellent ticket, and we look forward to campaigning across Illinois. Both of us want to be strong voices for all of Illinois, especially Downstate Illinois." more ›

Next fiscal year could be tough on Illinois state police if Governor Pat Quinn’s proposed budget cuts pass. Quinn’s budget plan proposes cutbacks that could include laying off more than 400 state police and closing five district headquarters. The areas affected would be Carmi, Litchfield, Pecatonica, Macomb and Chicago. Local police departments in the area would be responsible for shoring up the resulting gaps in policing. more ›

At noon today, Governor Quinn will give the annual budget address in which he will reportedly announce a plan that involves borrowing $4.7 billion while making major cuts - including $1.3 billion from education. And while he hasn't included a tax increase, his chief of staff Jerry Stermer indicated that one could be in the future: "He's not included a tax increase in this budget, and that's a conversation that has to happen. The General Assembly has not acted on a tax increase and have given signals they don't want to act on a tax increase." For today's speech, our Editor-in-Chief, Marcus Gilmer, will be joining Dan Sinker (frmr Punk Planet), Ramsin Canon (Gapers Block), Anna Tarkov (Windy Citizen), and Mike Fourcher (Purely Political) for a special Budget Address edition of WBEZ's Lunchbox series. Listen to the speech and follow along with the panel. more ›

The campaign for the Democratic nomination for Governor is getting dirtier by the day as the Hynes campaign leaked a video showing Quinn falling asleep during a particularly "heart wrenching speech" about health care. We've all been there, we've all dozed off during a staff meeting or on a conference call. But we've been lucky enough to not have our campaign rival videotaping us before taking 40 winks. [via NBC 5] more ›

Lawmakers return to the Illinois Capitol today for the fall veto session. The session, slated to last three days this week and three next, will focus on money for cash strapped college students and stronger ethics laws. more ›

• Mayor Daley and Governor Quinn are defending the $16 million price tag on the state's tourism spending. If gubernatorial opponent Dan Hynes thinks that's steep now, wait til October 3rd when we might add roughly $4 billion to that.
• Officials downstate are investigating a brutal quintuple homicide in which a couple and three of their children were shot dead in Beason; a 3-year-old girl survived the shooting, but police haven't released any additional details on her condition.
• Investigators have ruled that the fire-related deaths of a couple in their Des Plaines-area home was a murder-suicide.

180 National Guard troops got a warm welcome home today from friends, family, and Governor Pat Quinn. The ceremony was held today at Soldier Field; it's the first trip home in almost a year for the soldiers from the 178th Infantry. The troops were among those that Gov. Quinn visited during his surprise trip to the Middle East a few weeks ago. more ›

Governor Quinn paid a visit to Illinois troops overseas in Iraq and is still over there on a tour of goodwill, showing support for the soldiers far from home. Quinn spoke with CBS 2 and told them, "This is an arduous, difficult, hard assignment, and they've carried it out with great distinction...(We have) 3,200 men and women from our Illinois National Guard are over in Afghanistan. It's the largest deployment since World War II. But here in Iraq, we have hundreds of Guard members." Quinn took the surprise trip with a group of other state governors, departing Friday; the plans for the rest of his trip and his return have not been released. more ›

After a lot of hootin' and hollerin', it's finally done: we have a state budget. And one without an income tax hike. But with the state facing somewhere in the neighborhood of a $9 billion budget gap, how will the state actually manage to make ends meet? In a word: borrowing. The $26 billion spending plan depends on borrowing $3.5 billion to pay state worker pensions and around $3.2 billion in bills is pushed off to next year's budget, but the move means that most of the state services that were on the brink of getting cut will now remain. For now, anyway, as Gov. Quinn has the option to cut any additional money as he sees fit. Still, Quinn said the budget still puts the state between $4 billion and $5 billion down. more ›

Happy Birthday, Mom! more ›

• Six more confirmed cases of Swine Flu have the grand total in the state of Illinois up to *drumroll* .... Nine.
• Meanwhile, Governor Quinn echoed the sentiment of common sense in saying that riding public transit did not pose any additional health risks.
• Chicago Public Schools and the teachers' union are squaring off over potential changes to the retirement plan.

Poor Governor Quinn. He just wants to be liked and Mayor Daley keeps toying with his emotions. First, Daley got pissy over Gov. Quinn's budget. Then, MayDay said some very nice things about the Governor. But now Daley is back to questioning The Mighty Quinn's tax plan. According to David Stewart at WGN Radio, Daley said, "Just to say, ok my answer is to increase taxes, and I'm not going to look at, review my departments, which I think its very challenging and I think that they have to rethink that." We patiently await Daley's next statement on the issue, probably sometime next week, when he is expected to say, "Nah, I was just fuckin' with ya', Patty. Just bustin' the new guy's balls. Of course you can tax the shit outta everyone! It's Cook County!" more ›

It appears Governor Quinn has delayed distribution almost $900 million intended for transit improvements in the Chicago area, part of a state mini-capital bill, incurring the wrath of state legislators. State Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago), chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said the news came from Jack Lavin, Quinn's COO, and budget head Ginger Ostro. Sandoval claims CTA, PACE, and Metra were all told to halt planning on the current projects and to not spend any money. Said Sandoval, "We had a major signing ceremony for the mini-capital bill a few weeks ago with the governor -- and now he's doing a head fake. This tells me Gov. Quinn still has his running mate's playbook that he has dusted off the shelf." Meanwhile, Quinn's staff is saying the projects will be paid for. Quinn Spokeswoman Katie Ridgway told the Tribune, "there is nothing on hold, and it's the governor's intention that transit projects will get started this construction season." The Trib has more details on the specific transit projects affected. [Tribune] more ›

While former governor Rod Blagojevich was paying Karl a visit, Gov. Quinn was preparing to counter Blago's attacks on him. Sure enough, Quinn appeared on WGN 720 AM with John Williams, calling Blago, "yesterday's tomatoes." SNAP! Quinn also admitted he listened to Blago's appearance for about half-an-hour and took questions from listeners. You can listen to Quinn being interviewed here: Part 1 (MP3) and Part 2 (MP3). more ›

The Trib has updated its story that Gov. Quinn plans to raise the state income tax with a confirmation from the governor himself. Check out our first post on the topic here and check out the Trib's update below. more ›

Yes, even in Illinois - state motto: "We tax the shit out of everything" - there's always room to raise taxes. This morning, the Tribune is reporting that Governor Quinn is considering a plan that would raise Illinois' state income tax by half, from 3 percent to 4.5 percent. According to the Trib's source, such a hike would also include a hike in the corporate income tax on businesses, but would be softened by raising the standard $2,000 tax exemption to $6,000. If implemented, it would be the first income tax hike for Illinois in 20 years; the rate was raised from 2.5 percent to 3 percent in 1989. Critics suggest Quinn will have to tread carefully lest he severely damage his chances in 2010. Quinn is due to present his budget plan to the state legislature next Wednesday. more ›