Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn hires lame-duck who voted for tax hike

By Phil Boehmke

Since Illinois’ lame-duck legislature passed the largest tax hike in state history last week at 1:30 a.m. on the last day of their session, there have been rumors of secret deals between the Democrat leadership and those members who voted for the monumental job killing bill. The unprecedented tax increase passed the legislature with the absolute minimum number of votes required (without a single Republican vote) and was signed into law by Democrat Governor Quinn without press coverage or ceremony.

Late last week we learned the story of how Chicagoan Kathy Moore was appointed to serve the final week of former representative John Fritchey’s term for the express purpose of voting for the tax increase. Now the Chicago Tribune reports that lame-duck representative Careen Gordon (D-Morris) was given a job on the Illinois Prisoner Review Board (which pays nearly $86,000 + benefits) by Governor Pat Quinn.

Naturally the governor and Ms. Gordon have denied any wrongdoing.

“In the seven years and couple weeks I was in the legislature, my vote was never for sale,” Gordon said. “Sometimes, there’s just no conspiracy.”

Gordon, a Democrat from Morris who recently moved to Chicago, said she first approached the governor about a job on the Illinois Prisoner Review Board soon after loosing her re-election bid in November. She said that Quinn asked her in that conversation what she thought of the possibility of a tax increase.

She said she told him she could support it only if she knew how the money would be used, cuts were included and there would be “no new programs.” He did not ask for her vote, she said. Nor did she feel pressured to vote for the legislation.

Governor Quinn’s office called Gordon’s appointment a coincidence. Spokesperson Annie Thompson said “It doesn’t have anything to do with what she did at the end of her term in the General Assembly,” adding that Gordon was appointed on the basis “of her work on criminal issues throughout her career.”

Ms. Gordon maintains that when she and Quinn discussed her appointment again in early December, Quinn said “everything is positive, we’re moving forward.” Gordon claims that the tax hike was not discussed at that time and that she was told the appointment would be made after the governor was sworn in for his full term on January 10.

Interestingly enough the tax hike which Ms. Gordon said she would only support if there were cuts included, does not call for any actual budget cuts, in fact it allows for as much as a 2% annual increase in spending. Still we should not question Ms. Gordon’s integrity or ethics because she was sincere in saying that her vote was never for sale, of course she may not consider a trade or an exchange of favors to be an actual sale. Such is the nature of Democrat Party politics.

Pay attention folks, the Gordon appointment and the Kathy Moore shenanigans are just the tip of the ice berg in this tax hike story. One final note: congratulations to Careen Gordon on landing such a good job so quickly in this economy.

January 16, 2010

paboehmke@yahoo.com