Despite Mayor Richard M. Daley’s near rapture over Gov. George Ryan’s $12 billion public works plan, not everybody else in the state adores it quite so much.
Drivers and drinkers, for instance, are plenty peeved. They’re the ones who get nailed with higher booze taxes and license plate fees to help pay for the programs.
But the azaleas are in bloom and the bar’s open at the governor’s mansion as Ryan does his back-slapping, handshaking, have-a-drink best to lubricate passage of the plan, which he’s named Illinois FIRST. No Dan Quayle “potatoe” problem for this gov. He helpfully spelled it for us–“F-I-R-S-T”–at his unveiling speech in the Capitol.
Among those not crazy about how Ryan wants to pay for bridges and roads and schools: Senate Minority Leader Emil Jones (D-Chicago). It would follow that the Ryan people would be treating Jones with special warmth and deference–but it seems that the reverse is true.
There was a bipartisan love-in news conference that Ryan arranged so that House and Senate leadership could say on TV that they backed the plan. At first, Jones was a no-show.
That’s because Ryan’s staff didn’t tell him that the news conference time had changed. It was only when a lobbyist wandered over to Jones’ office and told him he was missing the show that Jones learned of the time switch.
It wasn’t the first time that Jones felt wounded by Ryan’s staff’s failure to treat him with a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T. GOP Ryan needs four Democratic votes for his plan to pass the Senate. “It’s called follow-up and attention to details,” said one frustrated Democrat. “They need four of our details!”
Springpatch perks patrol
Overheard in the anteroom of House Speaker Michael Madigan’s offices:
Man in a dark suit: “So, you’re a public official and a lobbyist?”
Other man in a dark suit: “Yup.”
Man 1: “That’s great!”
Man 2: “You can’t beat it.”
Man 1: “I’d love to have both of those perks.”
Inc. (left one, see above) hadn’t been to Springfield since she was a size 4–this was some time ago–but it’s good to see that some things never change.
Free at last
Ever meticulous, it was Inc. who called Gov. Ryan’s office to point out that the yellow ribbon in honor of the three American hostages could come down now from the governor’s outside balcony at the Capitol. Like all of us, Ryan was thrilled that the soldiers have been freed by their Yugoslav captors. And so he happily ordered that the ribbon be taken down Wednesday.
Spring fling
They might be feuding, but that was Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and school board President Gery Chico having a seemingly civil lunch (deli sandwiches and chips) at the City of Chicago office in Springfield Wednesday. There couldn’t have been many people left in Chicago’s City Hall. Vallas and Chico were just part of the Mayor Daley entourage that descended on Springfield to support, embrace, jubilate and otherwise favor the Ryan plan. Which has many, many goodies for Chicago in it.
Meanwhile, back in the real world
Brown’s got a brand new bag: James Brown might be the hardest working man in show biz, but he’s no slouch in the business department, either. He’s about to sign an estimated $100 million deal with the Pullman Group to sell bonds backed by his future song and music royalties on his more than 750 songs–a deal guaranteed to make all that hard work pay off for years and years to come.
Three years ago, David Bowie was the first to sign up for a $55 million bond deal with Wall Street financier David Pullman. Last year, Motown songwriting trio Holland-Dozier-Holland and Ashford & Simpson also signed up for “Bowie Bonds.”
So it’s no wonder that Brown is gloating over his big payback.
“I’m very happy to be able to do this deal because it will help me financially . . .” Brown said in a prepared statement. “To sustain myself at the age of 66–which I don’t think I look that old.”
Air Kisses
Thursday birthdays: George Clooney, 37; Willie Mays, 68; Bob Seger, 54; Mare Winningham, 40.
The Inc. spot
Wiltz goes Hollywood with Amiri Baraka
Poet/playwright/activist/actor/Internet entrepreneur Baraka, nee Leroi Jones, was in Chicago on Wednesday to perform at the Guild Complex with Chicago poet Marvin Tate. We grabbed him before he hit the stage:
Q. Tell me about your new book, “Black People & Jesse Jackson.”
A. The Third World Press has been threatening to publish that book for five years. I don’t know why they won’t publish that goddamn book. I think they’re afraid of Jesse Jackson.
Q. Why?
A. I think they’re afraid of offending him. (laughs) I guess they read the book.
Q. What did you say?
A. I trace his career from when he had an Afro and was wearing a dashiki and talking about a black political party. . . . Now he’s more interested in dealing from the vantage point of being inside the Democratic Party. He came under the domination of the black bourgeoisie, who were his bankrollers.
Q. Are you saying he sold out?
A. I’m not going to say that. I’m just going to say that what I write about Jesse is objective. People can draw their own conclusions. I’m not going to put Jesse down.
