WBEZ | Illinois

Waiting is hardest part for those watching Illinois’ same-sex marriage vote

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:46:00 -0500

For months, members of the Illinois State House have been waiting to call same-sex marriage for a vote. Sponsors say they don’t quite have the votes needed to pass the bill yet. But all that waiting has consequences.

Imagine what Chicago’s Boystown neighborhood would be like if same-sex marriage is approved in Illinois.

Imagining is Chuck Hyde’s job. “We’ve been kind of on-the-ready,” Hyde said.

Hyde manages the bar Sidetrack in the heart of Boystown on Halsted Street.

“We decorate big. Our events are big. It’s a fun bar. And it can hold a lot of people,” he said. "More than 1,200 people, actually."

I caught up with Hyde just as construction crews were wrapping up a renovation of the interior of the bar. It has several rooms, a few bars and an outdoor patio; the kind of place Hyde is hoping people will come to to celebrate bachelor or bachelorette parties. Or wedding receptions.

Hyde was hoping construction would be done in time so he could host a celebration in case the state legislature voted in favor of same-sex marriage.

Instead – he’s been waiting.

“There were a number of weeks back that we thought it might be very close and we were kind of waiting by the phone. Literally, the vote’s going up, the vote’s not going up,” Hyde said. “And if it was going to happen, we were ready. We had ordered champagne, we had glassware ready. We were ready for the balloons. We had posters. We had all kinds of things. We had some signs and we were going to let the world know that we were thrilled and throwing a party. And ready to celebrate.”

Hyde said the champagne is still in a cooler, waiting.

He said he was underprepared when same-sex civil unions passed in Illinois two years ago. The demand for a party when that passed was bigger than he anticipated.

So he’s trying not to leave anything to chance this time around.

That means, though, he’s been on edge for more than three months. The Illinois State Senate approved same-sex marriage in February. Since then, it’s lingered in the House of Representatives. Supporters say they’ve been waiting to call it for a vote because they don’t have the necessary 60 yes votes.

As wedding season arrives, those in the wedding business have had a lot of uncertainty about what their summer will look like.

“All of the wedding industry is following it very, very closely,” said Beth Bernstein, a Chicago wedding planner who operates SQN Events.

Bernstein said she helped plan a midnight civil union ceremony for six couples who wanted to file as soon as possible two years ago.

But since civil unions passed, things have plateaued.

“I don’t think it provided the lasting effect of the business that we thought we may see,” Bernstein said.

She’s seeing many couples waiting for word from Springfield before planning their wedding.

But for Amanda Marquez and Maggie Moran, waiting is not appealing.

Their Logan Square apartment has neatly organized shelves lined with books and tv show dvds.

Close by is a small pile of purple, green and blue origami paper stars.

“So this is going to make us look really bad, really tacky,” joked Moran. “We’re actually using the rainbow (as the colors of the wedding). But we’re not going for the whole rainbow effect. So we’re doing like half of the tables are warm colors and then the other half of the tables are cool colors.”

Moran and Marquez are having a civil union ceremony on June 22nd. If the proposed bill passes, they could apply to have that civil union turned into a marriage.

Marquez said she doesn’t want to wait on the government for other things, like buying a house or having kids, so why wait for the legislature.

“Not knowing exactly when, you know, how things will go in Springfield, when it will happen, we just moved forward,” Marquez said.

Moran said it will be heart-wrenching if same-sex marriage fails in Springfield. But she said it would be more heart-wrenching not committing to Marquez. She said that’s too much to put on one vote.

Tony Arnold covers Illinois politics for WBEZ. Follow him @tonyjarnold.

Illinois lawmakers vote to remove limits on TANF recipients’ assets

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:04:00 -0500

In Illinois, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients cannot have more than $3,000 in assets for a family of three. Assets include college savings accounts, emergency funds and second cars.

The Heartlands Alliance’s Lucy Mullany coordinates the Illinois Asset Building Group, an organization that was key in pushing the bill through.

“A lot of research shows that any asset test makes families feel they can’t save anything,” Mullany said.

She says that is confusing for families who are told saving will help them escape poverty.

Opponents of the bill argue that current limits ensure that the state only spends money to support people who really need it.

But Mullany says other restrictions since welfare reform ensure only the poorest of the poor are on TANF and eliminating the asset test will save money. She says last year, Illinois spent nearly a million dollars to enforce the asset test. But they only found eight people who were over the limit and some of those were only over by a few hundred dollars.

The bill is now on its way to Gov. Pat Quinn’s desk.

Shannon Heffernan is a WBEZ reporter. Follow her @shannon_h

Where was Rep. Aaron Schock at 25?

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:45:00 -0500

At 31, (soon-to-turn 32 in late May), Congressman Aaron Schock is the youngest participant of the Year 25 series.

It’s a designation he’s pretty used to. He was once the youngest Illinois state representative and school board president—at the same time.

At 25, Schock lived in an old house that was supposed to be condemned by the city of Peoria, Illinois.

But Schock bought it and flipped it himself when he finished college.

He was also a few years into his stint as an Illinois state rep, but that was only a part-time gig. Most of his days were spent in the private sector, working in real estate.

Schock says he had no idea as a 25-year-old that he’d live most of his days in Washington as a federal lawmaker. But as he told WBEZ’s Lauren Chooljian, he’s pleased with how things have turned out so far.

Lauren Chooljian is’ WBEZ’s Morning Producer/Reporter. Follow her @laurenchooljian.

More from this series

Dan Savage | Sen. Dick Durbin | Rick Bayless

Illinois businesses work to sort out the Affordable Care Act

Thu, 16 May 2013 05:00:00 -0500

Illinois businesses are preparing for the Affordable Care Act to go into full effect in 2014, and a leader from the Illinois Chamber of Commerce says some are considering limiting work hours to avoid future healthcare costs. But costs and logistics vary widely across different types of firms.

“It’s one giant puzzle within a puzzle within a puzzle,” said Laura Minzer, the Executive Director of the Health Care Council for the for the Illinois Chamber of Commerce.

She says employers, small and large, are scrambling to figure out which provisions of the federal law will apply to them and their employees. Businesses with under 25 employees may become eligible for tax credits for providing health care, while businesses with over 50 workers could face fines if they don’t provide affordable insurance for all employees working 30 hours or more.

The number of workers receiving employer-sponsored health care has declined steadily in recent years. Now, Minzer says limiting employee hours to under 30 is on the table for some bigger businesses worried about new health care costs.

“The cost of their benefits is not going down and it will not go down with this law,” said Minzer. Indeed, insurance premiums have been steadily rising, and experts expect to see a continued rise nationwide. But cuts to hours may be nothing new: the proportion of workers in part-time jobs has been on the rise since 2007.

One in five adults in Illinois is currently uninsured, and if they can’t get employer insurance, some will become eligible for government subsidies through the “marketplace” (formerly known as the exchange), which is a state and/or federally-run service intended to centralize and streamline shopping for private health insurance. Sliding scale subsidies in the form of tax credits will be available to those making up to four times the federal poverty level. Currently, Illinois has agreed to an insurance marketplace run jointly by Illinois and the federal government, but Minzer says the Chamber of Commerce supports opening a state-run marketplace by 2015.

“Even with all the concerns that we have about affordability, we see value in...the fact that you have a one-stop-shop for health insurance,” said Minzer. “The state is in a better position to administer that.”

States also have the option to expand Medicaid eligibility to adults making up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, an option that’s already being piloted in Cook County. However, because of a controversial Supreme Court decision, states can opt out of the Medicaid expansion, and Illinois has yet to pass a bill that would expand Medicaid statewide in 2014.

Perhaps surprisingly, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce also supports the Medicaid expansion.

That’s because there’s a benefit for business: employees who receive Medicaid would do so without triggering penalties for their big employers (as opposed to seeking out insurance through the marketplace, which would trigger penalties). Recent reports have found that larger businesses have a financial incentive to support Medicaid expansion and avoid fees for not providing health insurance to low-income employees.

Bills to expand Medicaid and to establish a state-run insurance marketplace are creeping through the Illinois General Assembly, and the federal/state insurance marketplace is slated to open October 1, 2014.

Lewis Wallace is a Pritzker Journalism Fellow at WBEZ. Follow him @lewispants.

State government lags in hiring Asian-American workers

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:21:00 -0500

State agencies are starting to plan how they’ll hire more Asian-American workers. Tuesday, a new Asian-American Advisory Council, handpicked by Governor Pat Quinn, meets with agency representatives to identify barriers to Asian-American employment and promotion in the state labor force.

The council will also chart out how they’ll recruit, retain, and promote more Asian-Americans.

The effort comes from the State Asian-American Employment Plan, passed in the General Assembly and signed by Quinn last year.

The effort is similar to other plans for Hispanics and African-Americans, aimed at ensuring the mix of state employees reflects Illinois’ diversity. A report released in February shows that although Asian-Americans represent about 5 percent of Illinois’ population, they comprise only about 2.5 percent of the state’s workforce.

The report surveying Asian-American employment in state agencies is the first of its kind in Illinois, mandated yearly by the underlying legislation.

“We do want to make sure that the workforce reflects the diversity of the state and that everyone in the state, regardless of their background or language ability, has the ability to access services provided by state government,” said Theresa Mah, Senior Policy Advisor and Director of Asian American Outreach to the Governor.

Mah said the Advisory Council will meet quarterly to follow through with state agencies on the plan’s implementation and results.

“There might be misconceptions about the availability of positions, or just not enough word-of-mouth that there are opportunities,” she said.

The Asian-American Employment Plan was one of several recent political victories by an ethnic group that is growing in both population and political clout in Illinois. Several organizations, including the Asian American Institute and the Pan Asian Voter Empowerment Coalition have lobbied state legislators lately to create an Asian-American caucus in the General Assembly and to consider Asian-American concerns in the legislative redistricting process.

Odette Yousef is WBEZ's North Side bureau reporter. Follow her @oyousef.

House GOP leader in favor of gay marriage

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 16:52:00 -0500

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A House Republican leader has announced his support for legalizing gay marriage in Illinois.

Rep. Ed Sullivan Jr. of Mundelein said Monday his position is influenced by his mother-in-law. She's been in a lesbian relationship for about 20 years.

Sullivan is the second GOP House member to support gay marriage and the first member of Minority Leader Tom Cross's leadership team.

The proposal got Senate approval in February. Supporters expect a House vote soon.

House Speaker Michael Madigan — a Chicago Democrat — has said the issue is a dozen votes short of 60 needed. Advocates say it's closer.

Other Republicans could jump aboard with Sullivan's announcement. And Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk came out in favor of gay marriage last week.

Marriage equality fight heats up in Illinois

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 05:00:00 -0500

Five years from now, Illinois’ campaign for marriage equality is going to make for a great docudrama on HBO -- or a soap opera.

Last week, queer and allied Illinoisians flocked to Springfield, awaiting a full House vote on equality legislation. As of March 15, the Windy City Times stated that the vote could “come any day,” which was the same thing that onlookers had been saying all week. Although Rahm Emanuel warned that the “clock is ticking” on equality legislation, the bill stalled as advocates struggled to rally the votes necessary to pass the bill.

The House needs 60 votes to pass the euphemistically titled “Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act” onto Gov. Pat Quinn, who has sworn to sign it. Chicago Magazine counted 43 affirmative “yes” votes, as well as another 20 “toss ups.” The Huffington Post claimed last week that the bill was still 12 votes away from passage, and Windy City Times has their own running count of how representatives will fall based on their previous votes.

With the fervent support of Emanuel, Quinn and GOP party leader Pat Brady, who stated that Republicans are “on the wrong side of the issue,” many thought the bill would sail through the House, based on its easy passage in the Senate. On Valentine's Day, the bill passed by a 13 vote margin, giving voice to the wide support for the bill in the state.

In the past week, national momentum has added pressure to our local conversation about marriage equality. Colorado passed civil unions at the same time that prominent politicians like Hillary Clinton and Ohio Republican Rob Portman have come out in support of equal marriage. Portman’s son, Will, came out to his father two years ago, and the conservative senator announced his change of heart on the issue last Friday. Even George W. Bush recently signed a brief advocating that the Supreme Court overturn California’s marriage ban. He was joined in his opposition to Prop. 8 by over 70 other prominent Republicans.

In March, Jon Huntsman advocated that the Grand Old Party officially embrace the issue as the GOP struggles to stay relevant in the Obama Era. For Huntsman, it’s not just that marriage equality is a conservative cause. It’s everyone’s cause.

So, what’s the hold up in Illinois?

Although Chicagoans often like to pretend we like in a totally Democratic state, this fight shows just how politically divided we are, between the Blue North and the Red South. Illinois is a little perfect petri dish of the national conversation, where polls show a wide majority of Americans (58 percent versus 32 percent just nine years ago) now support full marriage benefits for everyone, even though a sizeable minority of queer people live in states that offer them those rights. Only nine states have passed marriage equality legislation, and most of those are tucked away in New England.

Like Huntsman, the former governor of heavily conservative Utah, Pat Brady of St. Charles has supported marriage equality only to see his popularity plummet and his own party work for his removal. Although the meeting for his official ousting was cancelled, the Daily Herald claimed Brady would have been only one vote away from losing his position.

At a time when conservatives are allegedly loosening their grip on marriage opposition, Brady and Illinois Senator Jason Barickman’s experiences tell a different story. Barickman was the only Republican Senator to vote in favor of the bill on Valentine's Day. As he cast his vote, Barickman clearly shocked the room. One rumor mentioned boos in the audience, like something out of Lincoln. Rumors of Barickman's demise have been slightly exaggerated, but he has faced criticism from colleagues for stepping away from the party line and been attacked by a conservative lobby group.

Earlier this year, the National Organization for Marriage threatened to fight the reelection of any Republicans who vote "Yes" on the bill, and another conservative group posted Brady’s number online (ala MIA and the New York Times). The chairman’s phone quickly overflowed with angry calls and messages from same-gender marriage opponents. According to Pat Brady, he “didn’t know [those words] were in the Bible.” Exasperated with the excoriation by his own party, Brady said, “It just plays into a national narrative of the GOP as being close minded.”

According to the AP, just 47 Republican lawmakers have voted for marriage in the eight state legislatures surveyed, and all of them have faced party retribution for it. Interestingly though, Freedom to Marry statistics show that 97% of legislators "who voted for marriage and ran for re-election won," as well as 71% of Republicans. More than half of the Republicans who lost re-election did so for other reasons.

In Illinois, Brady isn’t the only one getting hounded for his stance. In robocalls from the ultra-conservative Chicago-based Family PAC group, PAC director Paul Caprio decried Hillsdale Rep. Mike Smiddy for receiving “homosexual money” in his campaign donations and (like our new virulently anti-gay pope) warned that "same-sex marriage denies children the right to know who their real parent is.”

This leaves me with two sets of questions:

1. Where can I get some of that homosexual money? Is it covered in glitter? Can I only use it at Homosexualland or is it valid everywhere?

2. Are Republicans against adoption in general? What about straight adoption? Are they in cahoots with the new Pope on this?

Elsewhere, Rep. Jeanne Ives of the strongly religious and wildly conservative Wheaton, Illinois continued Caprio’s line of argumentation. In a February radio interview for the Catholic Conference of Illinois, Ives argued, “To not have a mother and a father is really a disordered state for a child to grow up in and it really makes that child an object of desire rather than the result of a matrimony.” Ives went onto call same-gender partnerships a “disordered relationship” and to refer to the marriage equality fight as queer people “trying to weasel their way into acceptability.”

Ives has since (kind of) retracted her statements, after being criticized by Think Progress, Civil Rights Agenda director Anthony Martinez and Illinois Rep. Greg Harris.

As the issue continues to divide our parties and churches, and both opposition and support becomes more vocal, a recent email from Harris reminded followers that “this is our chance to make history.” The local leader of the marriage equality fight highlighted the campaign’s “incredible successes over the past several months.”

According to Harris, advocates have “grown support in every region of the state and made [the] case to lawmakers, Every time we’ve faced an obstacle, we’ve overcome it because of [Illinois’] commitment to moving marriage forward.” Although the bill is seeing short-term blockage, Harris stated that it could have never come this far without wide support. It’s about playing the long game.

When I spoke to Jim Bennett, the Midwest Director of Lambda Legal, he recognized that the bill faces obstacles to passage but assured that “we are confident that marriage is coming to Illinois, whether through the legislature or through the courts. No one should be satisfied with a second-class status.”

The organization is currently working with the Illinois Unites for Marriage coalition to get people to call their representatives.

“The most important thing any of us can do right now is to contact our representatives and ask for their vote on the marriage bill," Bennett said. "We have many priority areas, so we will continue to have plenty of work to do. Just because marriage is enacted doesn’t mean that the potential for discrimination disappears.”

Anthony Martinez, the Executive Director of The Civil Rights Agenda, (an organization I used to organize with) has been likewise working to keep the momentum going.

“With initiatives such as this one, that take such a long time to pass, we find that sometimes supporters get tired, and so we have to ensure that we are able to reinvigorate folks as we move forward,” Martinez said.

“Anybody who said this is a slam dunk is fooling themselves," continued Martinez. "Anyone who tried to put a timeline on this is fooling themselves and the community. The House has always been the heavier lift and we can do this, but the community must continue to push. This is not about public relations puffery, this is about getting the job done, and that is what we are doing."

I don’t know when we will see marriage equality pass in Illinois, but I know I can’t wait for the movie.

Nico Lang blogs about LGBT issues in Chicago. You can find Nico on Twitter @Nico_Lang or on the Facebook.

Illinois Senators remind American not to forget about ORD expansion

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 16:49:00 -0600

Illinois senators don’t want the pending merger between American Airlines and US Airways to affect plans to expand O’Hare International Airport.

Last night, Senators Dick Durbin (D) and Mark Kirk (R) sent American Airlines a letter saying they hope the merger won’t derail the O’Hare expansion plan.

The billion dollar O’Hare Modernization Program hinges on agreement United and American Airlines. The city is scheduled to sit back down with the two carriers in March to work on the next phase of the decade-long project.

In 2011, Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood helped broker a deal between the federal government, the city and the airlines.

In the letter, the Senators reminded the airline the O’Hare project "will create 195,000 more jobs and generate $18 billion in annual economic activity," adding the merger faces “regulatory scrutiny” by legislators before being approved.

Speaking today from Chicago, Sen. Durbin said the project was crucial.

"We really believe that key to economic progress in the Chicago reason is new runways and the modernization of O'Hare," Durbin said. "I'd like a committment from the new American Airlines that they are going to with us in that effort."

Staff from Senator Durbin’s office said they had not yet received a response from American.

"We appreciate the concerns expressed in the letter by Senators Durbin and Kirk," American spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan said, adding, "We have frankly been a little bit busy of late."

Fagan reiterated what the airline said yesterday during its merger announcement, that Chicago remains an important hub, but declined further comment.

Here's the full letter sent yesterday:

Durbin Kirk Letter to AA and US Airways - Merger - 2.14.13 by

Illinois foreclosure activity jumps

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:06:00 -0600

A jump in the number of January foreclosure auctions moved Illinois up one place to rank as having the third highest foreclosures activity in the country, RealtyTrac said today in its monthly data report on distressed properties.

Between December and January, the number of foreclosure filings in Illinois increased 22.6 percent - that basically equates to one out of every 375 homes in Illinois. Compared to the same time last year, the number of filings decreased 1.8 percent.

Nationally, foreclosures are down 28 percent from the year before.

Illinois is preceded only by Florida and California for foreclosure activity. A change in California law commonly called the Homeowner's Bill of Rights drastically impacted foreclosure filings there, RealtyTrac said.

“For the first time since January 2007 California did not have the most properties with foreclosure filings of any state," RealtyTrac's Darem Blomquist said in the report. "Instead that dubious distinction went to Florida, where January foreclosure activity increased on an annual basis for the 11th time in the last 13 months.”

You can check out more results here.

Illinois lawmakers call same-sex marriage for a vote once again

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 05:00:00 -0600

Illinois lawmakers are expected to take up same-sex marriage again this week. A state senate committee is scheduled to take up the issue Tuesday. State Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, is the sponsor of the bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Illinois. She said she wants the state to approve it before the U.S. Supreme Court hears a case later this year on the federal government’s ban on gay marriage.

"If that gets overturned, then couples who have access to marriage will have access to the 1,100-plus benefits that come with marriage," Steans said. "And if we only have civil union here, those couples will not have access to all those benefits. So I do believe there’s a sense of urgency."

The president of the Senate has said same-sex marriage will be easier to pass in the Senate than in the House.

"We will pass it first because we have apparently more votes in the Senate," Senate President John Cullerton said last week.

In January, lawmakers tried to legalize gay marriage before the winners from November’s election were sworn in, but failed to get the necessary support.