| Some papers are worth keeping. I collect the occasional paper when big historical events occur. For example, I have the Stars and Stripes paper published right after the Berlin Wall fell, as I was stationed in West Germany at the time. The Madigan conviction isn’t world news by any standards, nor is it as big a deal as releasing millions from tyranny. However, the conviction is a recognition that Madigan wrongly used his power for his own good. He acted as a tyrant, and the House was his fiefdom from where he ruled. For some of us who had a front-row seat to his narcissistic, mean-spirited leadership, the conviction is a small victory. But this conviction isn’t enough. And the stories being written don’t tell the real harm – the harm Madigan and his people did legally through destructive deals and laws over decades that has made Illinois one of the worst-run states in the U.S. At the height of Madigan’s power, after having elected Pritzker, a 247 Wall St study ranked Illinois 45th in that category. Madigan was convicted on 10 of 23 charges, including bribery, wire fraud, and conspiracy. The convictions stem mostly from pay-to-play schemes involving ComEd. Nothing says admitting to corrupt practices like paying a $200 million fine to prevent further investigation, which ComEd did four years ago. So, the outcome of this trial should have been a foregone conclusion. Stories are being written that summarize the trial and convictions, like this one from WTTW. Others report reactions to the news from Republican and Democratic leaders. From FOX 32 News, “Illinois Senate President Don Harmon called verdict an end to a “long, disturbing” chapter in the state’s history. “It’s a stark reminder that corruption, abuse of power and manipulation of public policy for personal gain can never be tolerated. We cannot be effective if people don’t trust us,” he said. … In recent years, we have worked to restore that trust through balanced budgets, credit rating upgrades, community investments and sweeping, bipartisan ethics reform.”’ Nobody should believe a word he said. Harmon runs the same type of operation as Madigan. He bought the Supreme Court races in 2022. He voted for unbalanced budgets. His community investments are crony deals with NGOs and rent-seeking companies. He’s been in office since 2003, and the state has only gotten worse financially. Rep Terra Costa Howard told Fox 32, “Corruption and unethical behavior by political leaders cannot be allowed to pervert our government and undermine the people’s trust. Today, the people won.” Well, the people may have won something with the Madigan conviction, but Costa Howard only WON the election because of Madigan’s millionsthat he spent electing her time and time again. Costa Howard and other Democrat women legislators are now fluffing their feathers and preening for the media that they kicked Madigan out in 2021 after numerous sex harassment charges directed at his staffers were made. The truth is Denise Rotheimer, an activist, in 2017, is the one that got the ball rolling down there when she accused a Democrat legislator of harassment and then discovered that Madigan had let the Legislative Inspector General position go vacant for 3 years. Only then did 300 Dem women emboldened by the #MeToo Movement raging across the country, sign a letter alleging large-scale harassment on the Democrat side, which then led to further investigations, the takedown of Madigan’s right-hand man Tim Mapes, and eventually the take-down of Madigan. It still took two more years for them to oust Madigan, and they didn’t do so until there was wide speculation that he was one of the unnamed targets in the ComEd scheme. ComEd essentially admitted to bribery in July 2020 when they agreed to pay that massive fine. Madigan was gone from leadership six months later and vacated his seat a few months later. So, No Costa-Howard – you and your gal pals were happy with Madigan until you knew he wasn’t going to be around much longer. In fact, in the six months before Costa-Howard found her moral compass to not vote for Madigan, she took over $350,000 from Democrat Party PACs controlled by him for the 2020 election cycle. She’s a FAKE. The same can be said of all of them. Please spare me the calls for ethics reform and the need to trust our government from these folks. They don’t mean it. Actually, the best distillation of Madigan’s real corruption came from the Wall Street Journal. They wrote, in part, in an editorial titled The King of Illinois Corruption: Mr. Madigan, who served as Speaker for all but two years from 1983 to 2021, was known as “The Velvet Hammer,” the “Sphinx,” and the “King of Illinois.” He is a protégé of Richard J. Daley Sr., the legendary Chicago mayor and political boss. While Mr. Madigan was in charge, everyone knew which ring to kiss. On his watch the Illinois government became a one-party Democratic fiefdom and a fiscal disaster. Mr. Madigan worked the political levers to gerrymander state legislative and congressional districts to lock in Democratic control. Illinois has 17 districts for the U.S. House, all but three of which are occupied by Democrats. In Springfield, the state capital, Democrats have supermajority control of the Legislature. When Mr. Madigan became Speaker, Illinois had a AAA credit rating. Democrats consolidated power via an alliance with government unions, which deliver votes and then are paid off with fat wages and benefits. But because voters dislike tax hikes, Mr. Madigan underfunded those pensions. According to the Illinois Policy Institute, the state now has the worst credit rating in the country. His conviction will be the most prominent part of his legacy. But, quite frankly, he should be known as one of the key people who: Destroyed Illinois Bringing it to financial ruins Driving people and top businesses out of the state Catering to public sector unions who own your house through confiscatory immorally high property taxes for their seven-figure pensions. That’s Madigan’s legacy. He has destroyed people’s livelihoods in this state. His reign was so long and his power so absolute that the many ills of Illinoisans could be laid at his feet. Wall Street Journal had another opinion piece on February 7th that mentioned a number of counties in Illinois that want to secede from the state and possibly join Indiana. They included this chart, which is another indictment of our political leadership under both Madigan and Governor JB Pritzker, who has continued the Madigan program of pandering to public unions and enacting terrible policy. This is Madigan’s Legacy, too. |
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| The real corruption during the Madigan years is the terrible policy he passed and the property tax scams he ran in his law practice. Another one of my favorite charts is this one. Warren Dixon, former Naperville Township Assessor, prepared it in 2014 when he and I were working on a number of property tax reform measures. The chart shows the top 12 sales in Chicago, with Madigan’s firm representing 7 of them. On average, properties are valued on the tax rolls at 42% of their actual market value. Why? Because companies hire firms like Madigan’s to appeal to the assessor, property tax review boards, and courts to keep their low assessments. It’s a game. The law firm gets the taxes lowered and takes a third of the savings; the following year, the assessment goes up, and the company hires the law firm again, and the game continues. |
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| Here’s the deal. This conviction isn’t just a conviction of Madigan, it’s a conviction of the entire Democrat Party of Illinois, the Democrats who kept Madigan in as Speaker of the House for 36 years, and the voters who returned him and his cronies to office election after election. And let’s not forget the Chicago and Springfield media that protected Madigan and his cronies, never really fully explaining both process and policy to readers. Were they also worried their trash wouldn’t get picked up?” Illinois Policy Institute Action did an hour-long movie detailing Madigan’s power. It is still available for viewing at Madigan: Power. Privilege. Politics No one should think things are any better or that policy will change now that Madigan is convicted. The ComEd jobs Madigan got for his goons and the bailout ComEd got in return is just a fraction of the money Pritzker has been funneling to non-profits to support illegals. Who’s prosecuting Pritzker? Are we just waiting for the Trump DOJ to catch them harboring illegals when they have been openly doing so for years? If you find the DOGE revelations shocking, you should know that Illinois has been subsidizing fraudulent NGOs for years. By the way, by definition, one would assume a non-governmental organization wouldn’t be taking government funding grants. Here is just one example of a useless organization getting millions in tax dollars: Illinois DOGE Profile: Chicago’s Indo-American Center |
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| As part of Chicago City Wire’s new “Illinois DOGE” series, we will profile non-profit organizations receiving State of Illinois funding to provide services the state also provides. These non-profits, also known as “non-governmental organizations,” often receive all or an overwhelming majority of their funding from government/taxpayers. In its 2015 IRS 990 filing, the IAC said its mission was “promotion of South-Asians through services that facilitate their adjustment, integration and friendship with the wider society (and) nurture their sense of community.” IAC said it operated programs in “computer education,” “adult literacy,” “youth development” and “workforce development.” In 2018, IAC changed its mission description to emphasize immigration, claiming to “address the needs of South Asian immigrants as well as people from more than 30 nations the world over” while working to “foster appreciation for the diversity of culture and heritage” among the non-South Asian population of Chicago. IAC’s revenue has more than doubled since 2018, with government grants jumping from $408,509 that year to $974,771 in 2022. The IAC told the IRS that in 2022, it spent $618,014 on “civic and immigration services.” The “Indo-American Center’s Civic Engagement Program integrates voter registration, mobilization, empowerment and education into our public benefits,” it explained. Read the entire story HERE:https://chicagocitywire.com/stories/669502312-illinois-doge-profile-chicago-s-indo-american-center This is just one of thousands of non-profits getting millions from taxpayers in Illinois. It is happening at the local level, too, as I pointed out in last week’s newsletter. |