Having the power to shape the course of hundreds of millions of lives isn’t attractive enough?
I suspect it isn’t. I suspect lots of people who would be good representatives don’t want to run because they perceive that the prestige isn’t enough to make up for all the negatives. Not that I’m certain that a housing allowance should be granted – I’m just saying that it’s not totally ridiculous. The dormitory idea also isn’t nuts, IMO. It might even help collegiality, with (say) 4 person mixed-party shared-kitchen-and-dining-room dorms.
Obviously nine-eleven is for terrorists. How could he be seen to support funding terrorists?
I’ve been doing some reading about this, and while the Governor might be a dick, it’s not clear to me that 911 services with simply shut down if this bill is not signed. As far as i can tell from reading some articles, and from looking over the bill itself, the bill lays out a state system of overseeing and funding 911 services. If the bill does not pass, individual localities will most likely have to (probably temporarily) take on the cost of providing 911 services until things are sorted out. And, in fact, some county administrators in this article said exactly that.
One of the Governor’s complaints is that the bill increases 911 fees on wireless services. The fee would increase from 87c to $1.50 per month in most areas of Illinois, and would increase from $3.90 to $5.00 per month in Chicago. The bill would also apparently allow AT&T to cease providing traditional landline services in Illinois, and this part of the bill is apparently opposed by some advocates for the poor and the elderly, including the AARP.
I looked up the voting record on the bill. In the House, the bill was supported by 81 of the 118 members (81 Yes; 27 No; 2 Present; 8 Absent). In the Senate, it received support from 53 of the 59 Senators (53 Yes; 0 No; 1 Present; 5 Absent). The Illinois Constitution requires a three-fifths majority in each chamber to override a Governor’s veto, so if no-one changes their vote, they will be able to override the veto quite easily in this case.
While the Assembly is largely in support of the bill, the issue seems to be, in some ways, a rather typical Illinois upstate/downstate pissing contest, with the Republican Governor on one side, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel on the other. I have no trouble believing that the Governor bears a lot of the blame here, but Emmanuel is also one of the biggest dicks in American politics.
Disclosure up front… I am a supervisor in a 9-1-1 center, but not in Illinois.
John Oliver did a praiseworthy report (Youtube video at link) on issues with funding for 9-1-1 centers. Among the points his program made were that many states mandate a 9-1-1 surcharge on telephone bills, ostensibly to fund 9-1-1 services. Unfortunately in many states those funds are diverted by the state legislatures to the state’s general revenue fund. Thus any increase to the monthly 9-1-1 charge on phone bills ends up being a secreted tax increase with nothing more going to 9-1-1 services.
Unlike some other states Illinois at least has a functional 9-1-1 advisory board. That board recommended a statewide $1.05 per month 9-1-1 charge. The bill proposes a higher surcharge.
Not surprisingly 9-1-1 funding measures are seen as a critical must-fund measure. This can end up with such bills being padded with other unrelated pet projects - pork barrel spending according to some.
Among provisions of the bill sent to the governor’s desk is a measure that would allow AT&T to drop landline service. This is seen as likely to have a greater impact on rural and elderly populations. It is opposed by the AARP.
Illinois Governor Rauner has requested a clean funding bill at the $1.05 level recommended by the state’s advisory board. I say give it to him. Then if he doesn’t sign it I would say he is a giant prick.
Sitcom, or reality show?
Forgot one of my links…
As of 2013 Illinois was confirmed as one of the states that diverted 911 funds to other purposes.
American Horror Story.
Iggy, i take your point about diverting 911 funds to other uses, and i’ve seen the John Oliver piece on 911 before, but for me there are still more questions than answers regarding the Illinois issue.
For example, one of your links says that the state’s advisory board has recommended a $1.05 statewide charge. But, according to the website of the Illinois Office of the Statewide 9-1-1 Administrator, that Office is only responsible for :
Basically, that means everywhere EXCEPT Chicago, and it seems that one of the issues here is that Chicago wants to substantially upgrade its 911 capabilities. Is $1.05 really good enough if it adequately funds 911 services in Aurora or Springfield or Champaign, but not in the city of Chicago?
I admit that there could be something i’m missing here. I’m no public policy or funding expert. It’s still not clear to me, from the bill itself or from the reporting, how the money is disbursed by the state among the various different municipalities, and nor is it clear to me how Chicago is affected by being excluded from the statewide authority.
All i know is that there’s a BIG difference in funding between a statewide figure of $1.05, on the one hand, and what is proposed in the bill, on the other. The bill proposes $5.00 in Chicago, and $1.50 outside of the city. If that money really is going to be used for 911 upgrades and services, then it could be incredibly important.
Generally 9-1-1 systems are locally funded. There may be some state funds for things like coordination between jurisdictions and such.
So if Chicago wants to raise taxes and give that to its local 9-1-1 center that does not need the governor to approve.
But the people of Chicago should remember that the city has more than tripled its 9-1-1 monthly phone surcharge since 2013… from $1.25 to $3.90 and the city wants another raise. AND the 911 center still needs upgrades??? 
And this comes at a time when the 911 industry nationwide just went through a technology transition known in the business as narrowbanding*. Long story short, radio systems were upgraded to new technology standard nationwide at no cost to the local 911 centers.
If the funding for my office was tripled AND we had just had a free radio overhaul we would not know what to do with the money… if we were getting the money. I suspect it would be worthwhile to follow the money through Chicago’s 911 system to be sure they are actually getting the funds that should be earmarked for them.
In fairness there are changing expectations from members of the public that the industry will need to address. The public cannot send a text to 911 nor stream video from the scene in most parts of the United States. Upgrading to that level of capability, so called NG-911 will cost money. If Chicago is doing that then perhaps their requested level of funding would be well spent.
- The FCC auctioned off the right to use some of the bandwidth previously used by emergency services for radio communications. The winning bidder, Sprint, wanted the extra bandwidth to improve cell phone services. As a part of the deal the winning bidder was required to upgrade affected emergency services radio systems at no cost to the end user.
Mixed political party living. I’m seeing, “Survivor, DC”. Hide the kitchen knives.
It’s nice to see that Chaffetz will still be working in a government job. 
Kris Kobach wants every U.S. voter’s personal information for Trump’s commission.
Well that should be no problem, didn’t Republicans just leak all of that information?
ETA: OK, maybe not everyone, just 200 million of us.
Although frankly any reality show would inevitably be a comedy.
Utah state rep Mike Noel on the real cause of forest fires:
True, nothing would burn if it were all bulldozed and strip-mined.
“Rock-lickers” is a new one to me.
But on the subject of forest fires: I am reminded of this t-shirt.
Alex Jones claims NASA is running a colony of kidnapped child slaves on Mars.
Where will Trump come down on this major issue? With the government agency he runs, or with his good buddy Alex Jones?
Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler of Missouri claims that trangendered soldiers are as big a threat to the United States as North Korea, Putin (surprisingly), and ISIS.
https://thinkprogress.org/hartzler-transgender-military-threat-e6c2bb61475f
Link goes to a Dope thread which I can’t find “park” or “forest” in. But was it any chance a t-shirt with Smokey Bear on it that said “Only you can prevent forest fires. No, seriously: we’ve been defunded. It’s just you now.”