From the Kankakee Daily Journal:

Phil Angelo: Edging away from the governor
11/20/2007, 10:32 am

Dan Hynes makes no secret of his disagreement with the Rod Blagojevich administration.

But he stops short, just ever so short, of calling the current governor a complete failure.

Hynes, the state comptroller, was in town Nov. 7 to speak at a leadership luncheon at the Weber Center at Olivet Nazarene University. The event was co-sponsored by the Bradley-Bourbonnais Regional Chamber of Commerce. About 40 attended.

Hynes, like Blagojevich, is a Democrat. Of course, everyone in power in Springfield is a Democrat these days. That does not mean they get along. Hynes, now 39, is in his third term, having been first sworn in in 1998, when George Ryan won his term.

"It's a bittersweet and sad day," he said of Ryan's trip to prison.

"It certainly gives the perception that Illinois government is corrupt and for sale."

Hynes has sponsored a measure to end "play for pay," the practice that has state contractors contributing to political campaigns. Both local state representatives Careen Gordon and Lisa Dugan voted for it, but it's stonewalled in the state Senate.

In case you're wondering exactly what the state comptroller does, he's the person who pays the state's bills. Hynes also regularly issues financial analyses of Illinois' performance on a number of issues (like how we compare in pension funding, "poor").

"Great if you're staying up late at night," he quipped. Actually, the reports have been used frequently on this desk.

He's sounding the alarm now.

"We took a step backward in 2007," he told the audience. "The last two quarters have seen the sales tax dip and corporate taxes dip." Those are, he said, signs of a slowdown that will force the state to retrench.

He blames the current administration for failing to stick to a 50-year plan to get Illinois up to snuff on its pension promises for public employees. By Constitution, Illinois cannot renege, but the state has been short-sheeting the funds. He would also like to see Illinois pay down some of its $2 billion Medicaid liability.

He terms Illinois finances as not being in "a crisis -- just a disturbing trend." He would have preferred the state set aside more money when times were good. His "rainy day" fund idea never caught hold in a government which historically spends every dollar it can find.

Other digs at the governor emerged.

* How about when the governor vetoed $463 million and then spent the money somewhere else? Well, that's what he said he did, but it wasn't quite the truth.

The governor, all along, Hynes says, has some authority to decide how Medicaid funds get spent.

"I don't know if we have a test case," Hynes says, "but I believe it to be unconstitutional."

* How about school funding?

Hynes called the current situation "gamesmanship." Blagojevich, he said, had the appropriations bill on his desk for 59 days and 30 minutes, signing it without change only 30 minutes before it would have become law anyway.

Saying districts missed two state aid payments, "that's no way to run a government."

* Hynes is lukewarm on the idea of expanding gambling in Chicago. Gambling, he agreed, was a "regressive" tax on the poor and "not very reliable."

But Chicago gambling would keep state residents from traveling to Indiana to bet.

"It's like fixing CTA funding and getting Indiana to pay for it."

* Hynes also stopped payment on $2 million Blagojevich wanted to send for flu vaccines never received. "He wanted us to pay for items we never got."

* How about the use of taxpayer dollars to fly home, when the governor is given a home? "It's excessive, but not illegal. It pushes the boundaries."