Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield.
Topspin
Here’s a sign a politician has been in office for a while: He delivers a speech timed to the anniversary of another speech.
That’s what Mayor Rahm Emanuel plans to do Thursday when he gives a “major address” on the “five-year anniversary of the address I gave on infrastructure.”
While designed as a policy speech, Emanuel’s address could carry the political benefit of allowing the mayor to attempt a change in subject from the city’s surging gun violence and struggles with police misconduct that have dominated headlines for much of the past year.
In fact, the mayor’s speech, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday, will start 30 minutes before a 2 p.m. Chicago town hall on gun violence headlined by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, the host of the cable news channel’s primetime show “All In.”
“Chicago has become a shorthand -- both for the president and for people who share his worldview -- for a kind of urban war zone,” reads the show’s invitation for the event at the Paul Robeson Theater at the South Shore Cultural Center. “The reality of that is much more complicated.”
So as the MSNBC event on the South Side will once again draw the national spotlight to Chicago’s intractable gun violence, Emanuel will be talking roads, rails and runways at the Chicagoland Laborers’ District Council Training and Apprentice Fund center on the West Side, according to an invitation to the speech.
In March 2012, Emanuel gave two speeches on infrastructure -- one on March 1 announcing his plans for the city’s infrastructure trust and a second, broader speech March 29 that was aimed at convincing aldermen to back that public-private initiative while packaging his previously announced construction projects as a $7 billion “Building a New Chicago” plan. The mayor delivered both speeches at West Side union halls.
Emanuel announced his plans for his latest speech during a 60-minute question-and-answer session Monday afternoon before graduate students at Stanford University.
“I’m giving Thursday a pretty big, what I think is a big speech, about what we’re doing on our airport, our public transportation, our roads, our parks, our schools, our community colleges and our street lights,” Emanuel said. “It’s a five-year anniversary of my first speech on infrastructure.”
The mayor brought up the speech when asked about policy areas on which he’d be willing to work with Republican President Donald Trump. Emanuel said his philosophy on dealing with Trump was to “cooperate where we can, confront where we must,” and noted that improving infrastructure could be an area of cooperation, as the president has listed it as a priority.
“I’m willing to cooperate, to do something on infrastructure. … But I won’t compromise on principles about Chicago being a welcoming city and a place where you can dream for your children. I will never compromise on that,” Emanuel said, referencing Trump’s immigration policies. “But you want to invest in helping us build our public transportation? Great. I’ll always take your money.” (Bill Ruthhart, Hal Dardick)
What's on tap
*Mayor Emanuel has no public schedule.
*Gov. Bruce Rauner's will appear at a high school in Belleville near St. Louis and a junior high school in Herrin near Carbondale.
*The Illinois Senate meets Tuesday, and the House gets started again Wednesday. Included on the agenda: a hearing to review some Rauner appointees.
*The Chicago City Council Human Relations Committee meets. The short agenda is here.
What we're writing
*Redflex to pay $20 million to Chicago to settle lawsuit over bribery scheme.
*CPS freezes some school spending amid ongoing budget troubles.
*Lisa Madigan presses Rauner to oppose Trump immigration push as state GOP blasts attorney general on state worker pay move.
*Cullerton adds thorny issue of school funding into already tricky hoped-for grand bargain on budget.
*At Stanford, Emanuel says too many Democrats care more about being right than winning.
*Duckworth, Durbin to vote against DeVos as Trump education secretary.
*Lose Illinois FOID card, keep your guns: Crystal Lake lawyer's story case in point.
*Toby Keith, who played concerts following the inaugurations of both President Trump and Gov. Rauner, is called too "political" for Naperville Ribfest.
*Suburban candidate drops out after Facebook post about women's marches.
What We're Reading
*Ex-Bear TE Bennett to skip Trump White House visit.
*For our millennial readers: Lyft expands north and west.
*For our Gen X readers: Double Door evicted.
From the notebook
*City Hall windfall: For the second time this year, City Hall has some extra cash to spend, and if history is any guide, the mayor and aldermen will have different ideas about how to spend it.
The latest windfall comes from a $20 million settlement of a civil lawsuit against Redflex Traffic Systems Inc. Redflex, the red light camera vendor that the city has accused of fraudulent acts after the Tribune exposed a $2 million City Hall bribery scandal, has agreed to pay the city $5 million in 45 days, an additional $5 million by the end of the year and the rest in installments by 2023.
That pumps $10 million into the city’s 2017 budget and an additional $10 million into future budgets between now and 2023.
The city recently announced it has an extra $14.7 million this year after nearly 84 percent of an estimated 155,000 eligible homeowners left city property tax rebates unclaimed. Aldermen pressed the mayor to spend that pot of money on various violence prevention programs as the mayor started announcing ways to spend the leftover rebate money without first taking his proposals to the City Council.
Emanuel now is seeking approval for his plans to spend the rebate money. His proposals include $3.5 million for park infrastructure; $2.8 million to equip all officers with body cameras by the end of the year; $2 million to rehab vacant homes; and $1.8 million to support after-school programs — but no money specifically set aside for groups that work with CeaseFire, which sends former gang members into neighborhoods to attempt to prevent violence, as aldermen had suggested.
Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, who has led one of the efforts to spend the unclaimed rebate money on violence prevention, said the new windfall presents the mayor with an opportunity to accomplish both his goals and those of the aldermen who disagree with some of his priorities. The initial $10 million from the Redflex settlement, Lopez added, could be used to ramp up CeaseFire-related funding this year and next.
“Our priority needs to be stemming the violence so people do not feel imprisoned in their own homes,” Lopez said. “Now ... we might be able to accomplish both our goals simultaneously, so we’ll see how that goes.” (Hal Dardick)
*Rauner pushback on House pay plan: Gov. Rauner's administration is raising concerns about a plan the House Democrats are pushing to free up money for employee paychecks after Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked a court to block salaries unless lawmakers approved a spending plan.
The Democratic legislation has "a lack of clarity," according to a review by the governor's budget office that was included in an analysis of the bill prepared for Republican lawmakers. Among the issues raised is uncertainty about whether the bill earmarks enough money to cover all employee salaries and a lack of funding for contractual workers.
The analysis also noted that some paychecks would be covered by dollars taken from the state's road fund, which can no longer be tapped to pay for services that aren't related to transportation under a constitutional amendment voters approved in the November election. However, the analysis notes that restriction could be addressed if the road fund money was used to pay salaries of police and workers in the transportation department.
The evaluation comes as the GOP pushes an alternative plan to keep paychecks flowing by changing state law to ensure salaries are paid regardless of whether or not lawmakers have agreed on a budget plan. (Monique Garcia)
Follow the money
*Democratic 2018 candidate for governor Ald. Ameya Pawar gave his own campaign $10,000.
*Mayor Emanuel reported $20,300 in donations, and the Chicago Committee he's allied with collected $53,900 from the political committee for Chicagoland Operators Joint Labor-Management.
*Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle reported $34,500 in contributions, including $20,000 from PipeFitters' Association Local Union 597.
*Track Illinois campaign contributions in real time here and here.
Beyond Chicago
*Trump takes to Twitter to dismiss negative polls as "fake news."
*Following wave of Bannon's power stories, Trump says he calls his own shots.
*Trump, staff rethink tactics after early stumbles, NYT reports.
*German conservatives unite behind Merkel for September vote.
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