Editorial Roundup: Illinois

Champaign News-Gazette. November 26, 2023.

Editorial: PAC’s shenanigans another sign of political class’ disrespect for law, Illinois

No one is ever going to brag about the effective oversight of campaign spending in Illinois. Campaign disclosure rules were written to be ineffective, and the Illinois State Board of Elections designed to be pretty much toothless.

But the board does do its job within the limits of its authority. The Chicago Tribune recently reported what can happen when it does.

Connected Democrats funded a political action committee — All for Justice — to elect two Democrats to the seven-member Illinois Supreme Court.

The PAC spent more than $7.3 million to put Justices Elizabeth Rochford and Mary Kay O’Brien in office.

But it failed to disclose the millions it spent until nearly three months after the November 2022 general election.

As a consequence, the PAC faced substantial fines for its violations of state law.

The committee responded by transferring nearly $150,000 to another committee, the Chicago Independent Alliance.

The Tribune story reported that the committees have the same address as the Andreou & Casson law firm, which was founded by Luke Casson.

Who is Casson? State election records show he’s the chairman and treasurer of All for Justice. He’s further identified as counsel for Senate President Don Harmon and the political director of Oak Park’s Democratic Party, “Harmon’s political base,” according to the Tribune.

Casson was considerably less than forthcoming when contacted by the Tribune. His responses included, “I didn’t know,” “I had no knowledge (of the fines)” and “That’s none of your business.”

Asked if he made the transfer to avoid what turned out to be a $99,500 fine for noncompliance, he said, “It wasn’t. I just said we don’t have any comment.”

Campaign disclosure rules are intended to allow voters to find out who’s backing whom in our costly election process.

All for Justice spent more than $7 million on behalf of two candidates, roughly a third of total campaign expenditures.

Spending on that level obviously contributed to the wins by Rochford and O’Brien. Rochford collected 55 percent of the vote in her race while O’Brien won narrowly with 51.1 percent.

The elections board isn’t giving up on collecting the fine. It contends that administrative rules make PAC officers — in this case Casson — “personally liable” for payment.

People will just have to wait and see how that works out. But the transfer speaks volumes about the committee leaders’ desire to follow the law.

Millions of dollars flowed into All for Justice from organized labor, lawyers and lawyer groups and Democratic politics. But Harmon, Casson’s political buddy, was among the biggest donors, contributing $700,000 from campaign committees he controls.

Harmon declined to answer questions about the fine-dodging transfer. But he did issue a bold statement saying “all political committees” have a “responsibility” and “duty” to comply with the law.

Politics is, by its nature, a tough and sometimes dirty business. But the transfer ploy demonstrates a level of clever sleaze and evasion showing — once again — how little respect the political class has for both the law and the people of Illinois.

Chicago Sun-Times. November 27, 2023.

Editorial: Thousands of babies born prematurely in Illinois are part of a deadly national trend

A new report by the March of Dimes underscores the need for elected officials, government and the healthcare system to do more to save lives, especially Black women and babies.

If that’s not enough evidence we are failing pregnant mothers and their babies, a new report by the March of Dimes offers still more sobering figures. The report gives Illinois a grade of D+ for the number of preterm births in 2022. Out of 128,315 births last year, 10.57% — or 12,139 babies — were born prematurely, putting our state’s youngest residents and their mothers at risk for all sorts of health issues, not to mention premature death.

And these numbers continue to be even more alarming for women and babies of color, especially Black women and infants. The preterm birth rate for Black women in Illinois is 1.6 times higher than the rate among all other women, according to the March of Dimes report.

“It’s unfortunate that we only see a modest improvement” in pre-births nationally and locally, Elizabeth Oladeinde, director of maternal and child health for the March of Dimes’ Chicago office, told us. “We know more work needs to be done.”

A major reason Illinois received such low marks for preterm births: Too many pregnant women lack access to health care, Oladeinde said.

Hospitals closing in the Chicago area have made it harder for women, particularly women of color, to regularly see health providers throughout their pregnancy — a key way to keep pregnant women healthy, leading to far fewer preterm births. Other hospitals — Jackson Park Hospital and Medical Center, St. Bernard Hospital and Advocate South Suburban Hospital — have reduced or eliminated maternal health services, Oladeinde notes.

Too little access to health care

“You have these (health care) deserts, and lack of care for the population in and around that area,” forcing women to travel farther distances, making it harder for them to get the regular care they need, she said. Another factor: the ongoing staffing shortage among nurses, midwives and other health care providers, Oladeinde adds.

There is some good news about how we’re doing: Illinois is one of 37 states, along with the District of Columbia, that has extended Medicaid health insurance coverage to low-income women from 60 days to one year postpartum. And Illinois is one of 39 states, plus Washington, D.C., to have adopted the Medicaid expansion, which allows expectant mothers greater access to preventive care during pregnancy.

Also, the state is one of 44 that has a federally funded mortality review committee that analyzes each maternal death to better understand and address the causes. The state’s most recent report on these deaths, which covered 2018 through 2020, concluded that 91% of pregnancy-related deaths might have been preventable, our WBEZ colleague Kristen Schorsch reported this month.

The March of Dimes’ Oladeinde is right — “we are ahead of the game” in these areas — but there is much more elected officials in Illinois and state government should be doing to improve the dismal numbers.

The state has said it will help pay for doula care, joining 11 states and D.C. that already reimburse non-medical companions who physically and emotionally support a woman throughout childbirth.

Another way the state can bring down the alarming number of mother and infant deaths is for the Illinois General Assembly to approve and Gov. J.B. Pritzker to sign a law that provides for paid family leave.

And the health care system — hospitals, licensing bodies, medical schools and others — should make tackling implicit bias a top priority by offering robust training and engaging in regular conversation about why some patients’ health conditions routinely go undiagnosed or underdiagnosed. More awareness and action means more lives saved.

While the problem of preterm births and maternal and infant deaths may seem insurmountable, advocates like Oladeinde are right to remain optimistic.

“We have to keep moving ahead,” she said. “Preventing just one death is a win.”

Saving women and babies’ lives should be an easy goal to prioritize. Too many lives are depending on it.

Chicago Tribune. November 26, 2023.

Editorial: Wind farms in Lake Michigan make no economic sense. Springfield ought to sink that idea.

There’s a bill floating around in Springfield that would establish a wind farm in the waters of Lake Michigan.

Residents in high-rises with lake views need not be alarmed. Nothing being envisioned poses a visual threat to their vistas. The turbines would go on the Far South Side, nearest to heavy industrial areas that aren’t known for being picturesque.

The idea ought to be killed anyway for reasons having nothing to do with aesthetics. It’s unneeded, prohibitively expensive and would be funded by hiking your electric bills, which already are considerably higher than they were a few years ago.

But let’s start at the beginning.

Democratic state Sen. Robert Peters and state Rep. Marcus C. Evans Jr., both South Side lawmakers, last year introduced the measure, which would require the state to contract with the developers of the new wind power facility and have utilities charge customers accordingly. They argued the project, which would feature up to 12 turbines and generate up to 150 megawatts of power, would help the environment and also create jobs for the economically disadvantaged South Side.

The bill had some momentum in the spring session, passing the House on a convincing 85-21 vote. Ultimately, it stalled in the Senate.

So the General Assembly did what lawmakers do when they don’t want to just say no to their colleagues. They passed a law requiring the Illinois Power Agency, the state body tasked with negotiating power procurement on behalf of utility customers, to study the issue along with several other energy projects wanting state help.

That report is due in March.

Lawmakers no doubt will wait for the IPA to weigh in before making any final decisions. But, unless they ignore economic rationality — something they’ve been known to do, especially when it comes to energy policy — they will take a pass. The economics of offshore wind power, already poor when the bill surfaced, have grown considerably worse since then.

Consider that several major offshore wind projects planned in the Atlantic, off this nation’s East Coast, have been deep-sixed or gone on life support in recent months. The problems are essentially the same in all cases. Costs have ballooned far higher than originally projected thanks to supply-chain snarls and sharply higher interest rates.

Danish wind power giant Orsted last month canceled two large developments planned off the southern coast of New Jersey, prompting Gov. Phil Murphy to accuse the company of breaking promises and jeopardizing its credibility.

Other planned projects off New York and Massachusetts either are tottering or returning to the drawing board.

In Massachusetts, developers of two massive wind farms have gone so far as to pay the state $108 million to free them of power-purchase contracts that had become financially infeasible. They intend to rebid with the state, at considerably higher prices.

There’s a lot of debate right now about the future of wind power off the East Coast. Is the industry merely enduring a hiccup or are these issues killing Atlantic offshore wind in the cradle?

Most likely, wind farms in the Atlantic eventually will happen. The Biden administration is banking on substantial ocean development to meet its carbon goals. The Great Lakes are another story.

To date, there are no wind farms in the Midwestern portion of the Great Lakes. A relatively small 20-megawatt project proposed off Cleveland in Lake Erie is struggling to obtain financing and may need to be rethought.

There are simple reasons the oceans are a far better bet for siting wind power than the Great Lakes. First, saltwater doesn’t freeze nearly as quickly as fresh water. Frozen lake waters add substantially to the cost of wind power and also hinder operations, making them potentially less efficient.

Then there’s public acceptance. Oceanic wind farms can be located far enough out to sea that they can’t be seen from the shore. That’s not the case in Lake Michigan.

More generally in terms of energy policy, state lawmakers have resorted again and again over the past decade to promoting various clean-energy initiatives — typically in the form of electric-bill surcharges financing nuclear plant bailouts, utility-run energy efficiency programs, renewable energy, social equity in energy policy, etc. — that the last thing we need is yet another add-on to your monthly ComEd bill bankrolling something that provides so little bang for the buck.

The economics are so crummy that even some environmental groups oppose the bill. The Environmental Law & Policy Center in Chicago estimates the Lake Michigan project would require power prices of at least 20 cents per kilowatt-hour. Onshore wind power in Illinois is economic at prices more like 2 or 3 cents. That’s quite the markup.

ELPC also believes, since the lake bed is held in public trust, that allowing it to be used for private gain potentially violates the law.

The economic development case for wind is poor as well. Wind power, once in operation, is a low employment industry. There are construction jobs, of course, but those are temporary. The industry’s real job-creation engine is in manufacturing the turbines.

More practically, Illinois has lots of open land where more wind power can be installed far more cost effectively as the state strives to meet its ambitious clean-energy goals.

In Europe, where offshore wind has been a reality for years, domestic energy sources are less abundant, making the case for offshore wind more compelling.

Windmills in the lake are an idea whose time hasn’t come. There’s plenty of green-energy opportunity without messing with Lake Michigan.

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