Progress Illinois

Remember that mortgage relief bill that Rep. Peter Roskam voted against because, as he so eloquently put it, he didn't want Gov. Rod Blagojevich to be our landlord? As we noted, the position was bunk: the governor will have very little control over how the funds promised to Illinois cities and municipalities will be used. And while the details are still being ironed out, the Christian Science Monitor highlights a few of the projects local legislators are planning to enact once given their share of the promised $4 billion. Turns out, many of them sound pretty darn helpful.

Among the ideas forming: Baltimore intends to use some funds to gain control of the inventory of foreclosed homes within it's borders, Cleveland may demolish houses in blighted areas and then plan neighborhoods more thoughtfully, and Trenton, NJ officials want to rehabilitate abandoned lots and restore copper wiring that's has been stolen:

States and cities consider the funding a key to blunting the effect of foreclosures, seen in abandoned properties, inadequate rental housing, and deteriorating neighborhoods. For many locales, it will add leverage to their own efforts. Some community activists hope the money will also help to moderate home-price declines.

"For many communities impacted by homes already foreclosed on, this was viewed as the linchpin to turn the tide around," says David Berenbaum, executive vice president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition in Washington. "It will augment state, private, and partnership funds."

There's no word yet on how much of the total appropriation will be sent to Illinois.

There was both good news and bad news on the education front yesterday. While Illinois students’ scores on ACT college entrance exam inched upward this year -- to the highest level since the state began requiring the test -- the gap between black and white high schoolers’ scores grew steadily as well:

An improvement in white students’ performances mostly fueled the gains in the 2008 scores, and the disparity between black and white students’ scores continued to widen, the report said. White students who graduated this spring scored 5.2 points higher on average than their peer black students. That’s up from a low spread of 4.5 points in 2003. [...]

“We know high schools are struggling with that issue,” [State School Superintendent Christopher Koch] said, adding that Illinois is working on it by requiring summer school and pre-testing before some students enter high school.

The report is perfect fodder for the education reform debate fermenting in Illinois. Critics like State Sen. James Meeks have lamented our state's reliance on local property taxes to fund education -- a system that creates a disparity between the funds available to property-poor school districts and wealthy ones. In a recent column here at Progress Illinois, Illinois state rep candidate Will Burns pointed to Michigan's 1994 education funding overhaul as evidence that a centralization of funding (the Wolverine State pays 57.3 percent of the total education costs) can save taxpayers money and improve education equity.

Is Michigan's plan perfect? Not in the least. On his Daily Herald blog yesterday, John Patterson reprinted his own 2005 story pointing out some of the reforms' shortfalls.

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On Sunday, Rep. Peter Roskam and his family decided to forgo their scheduled family vacation and instead headed east to Washington, DC, where a group of House Republicans were gathering to protest what they have termed the "Pelosi shutdown" -- the decision by Democrats to adjourn for August recess without first voting on offshore drilling legislation.

Yesterday, Roskam called into WLS' Don Wade & Roma to discuss his impromptu trip. After lauding him for his effort -- even thanking him for "helping America's families" by moving the energy debate forward -- the radio hosts assisted Roskam in obscuring some crucial facts about the drilling proposal. For instance, listen to this exchange:

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ROSKAM: Our desire is to move a holistic energy policy forward. There is an understanding that were not simply going to drill our way out of this, but you’ve got to pursue those sources of energy in the short-run.

But if we can't "drill our way out of this" energy crisis, as Roskam acknowledges, why should we devote resources to expanded offshore drilling? Why not instead focus most of our energies -- and taxpayer dollars -- on developing sustainable, alternative sources of energy?

Curiously absent from the 11-minute discussion on WLS was any mention of timeframes -- with one exception. During the above clip, Roskam appeared to suggest that increased drilling will help lower gas prices "in the short-run."

But a recent report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicted we wouldn’t see “a significant impact” on gas prices until 2030. No economist from any ideological position disputes this point. So unless Roskam equates "20-plus years" with "short term," he's being highly misleading.

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In an interview with Roll Call (subscription required), GOP Rep. Peter Roskam demonstrates his view of Arabs:

In 2006, he faced wounded Iraq War veteran Tammy Duckworth (D), who garnered national and international media attention. Arabic news network Al-Jazeera even traveled to the district to cover the campaign.

“What do men in caves in Pakistan care about this campaign?” Roskam remembers thinking.

The big news out of Washington yesterday was the passage of a far-reaching housing rescue bill by the House. While President Bush initially opposed a section of the bill that would appropriate nearly $4 billion in grants for local governments to buy and refurbish foreclosed properties, he eventually relented, clearing the way for the bill's passage. But 149 congressional Republicans, many citing the rehab funds as a major sticking point, voted nay.

Among this group was 6th District Rep. Peter Roskam, who explained that he opposed the bill out of the fear that Gov. Rod Blagojevich will have too much control over the federally-funded Illinois projects. "Do you want Rod Blagojevich to be your landlord?" Roskam asked in a statement released by his campaign last night.

But how much control will Blagojevich actually have? As it turns out, not very much.

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Earlier in the year, Rep. Peter Roskam signed on as a co-sponsor of the Military Honor and Decency Act, which restricts the sale of movies or printed materials featuring any nudity on Army bases worldwide. Today, the Sun-Times' Abdon Pallasch printed a response from Roskam's Democratic opponent, retired Col. Jill Morgenthaler:

"I find it offensive, having served with the young men and women in Iraq," said Morgenthaler, a retired colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves. "Every day we trust them to make decisions. This bill says we don't trust them to choose their own magazines or movies."

Blogger Steve Benen expressed similar sentiments last April:

Let me get this straight. U.S. troops are fighting two wars, neither of which are going well, and Republicans believe we should spend time and energy considering what kind of magazines U.S. troops can purchase on base? Here’s a radical idea: maybe those who wear the uniform and put their lives on the line for their country should be able to read whatever they want. 

Peter Roskam says vets in his district know he supports them. If that's the case, why did he vote against the House version of the revamped G.I. Bill last month? The bill assists veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars that have served three years or more by covering the cost of four years at a state college and helping with housing and books. Speaking to NBC5's Mary Ann Ahern yesterday, Roskam said it was all a matter of dollars and cents:

“I’m a co-sponsor of underlying bill, but as with many things in Congress, you don’t get an up-and-down vote on simply that bill alone. So unfortunately, it was loaded up with a whole lot of other spending and it was loaded up with $51 billion dollars in new taxes. Nobody sent me to Washington D.C. to raise their taxes.”

Roskam left out a tiny detail about those "new taxes." To fund the 10-year benefit package, Democrats proposed a half-percent tax surcharge on individuals earning over $500,000 and couples earning over $1 million a year. But that wasn't good enough for the Illinois congressman, who was apparently more interested in protecting the economic interests of his district's wealthiest residents than the educational interests of the 1.6 million Iraq and Afghanistan veterans hoping to better their lives at home.

Tomorrow, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will run a radio ad criticizing Rep. Mark Kirk for his decision to vote "present" last week on the House's version of the Iraq war funding bill. The bill included an amendment that modernized the G.I. Bill by expanding education benefits for military veterans and offset the cost with a tax hike on individuals making over $500,000 annually and couples earning more than $1 million. The bill also mandated President Bush to being drawing down the number of troops in Iraq with 30 days of its enactment.

Over 130 Republicans joined Kirk in voting "present" on the bill, including almost all of Illinois' GOP congressional delegation: Reps. Judy Biggert, Peter Roskam, John Shimkus, Don Manzullo, and Jerry Weller.

With the ad-buy, the DCCC is making clear how serious they are about targeting Kirk this time around. After all, it's six months until Election Day and Chicago is one of the country's more expensive media markets.

You can here the DCCC's ad here.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) has released its list of targeted congressional races for 2008 and there are six in Illinois:

- IL-6: Incumbent Peter Roskam is one of the DCCC's "Targeted Republicans"

- IL-8: Incumbent Melissa Bean is one of the DCCC's "Frontline Democrats"

- IL-10: Incumbent Mark Kirk is a "Targeted Republican." Meanwhile, challenger Dan Seals is part of the DCCC's "Red to Blue" program.

- IL-11: Democratic candidate and State Sen. Debbie Halvorson is also on the "Red to Blue" list.

- IL-14: Bill Foster, who is filling out the rest of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert's term after winning a March 8 special election, is one of the DCCC's "Frontline Democrats"

- IL-18: The DCCC describes this as a "competitive open seat" (current Rep. Ray Lahood is retiring). The Democratic candidate is Colleen Callahan.