by Steve Dunford

In two days,  Illinois will enter its third year without a state budget.  The state has a junk bond credit rating.  Yesterday the multi-state lottery games Mega Millions and Powerball pulled out of the state.

Governor Bruce Rauner called the General Assembly to special session.  Both houses just gaveled in and gaveled out within a few minutes.

This is how I see things in the state capital.  No matter who is elected governor or who we send as representatives to Springfield, speaker of the house Mike Madigan rules it with an iron fist.

I have used this as an illustration in several conversations.  Madigan was elected to the Illinois house in 1970.  He became speaker of the house in 1982, and has been continuously, other than between 1995-97, when the Republicans controlled the house.  He was senate majority leader then.

I am fat, bald, and grey.  I was also bald in 1970, I was born in April of that year.  I was twelve years old, and in the 7th grade when he became speaker of the house.

In his time in the House, he has been trough eight governors, six since he has been in a leadership role.  Three of the eight governors have been or still is in prison.  When he was elected as speaker of the house Jim Thompson was governor, who Thompson is another poster boy for term limits in this state in my view.

The standoff’s in which Madigan has this “my way or the highway” attidute is not new since the election of Bruce Rauner.  I am calling it the way I see it.  When Pat Quinn was governor the two quarreled at times, but Quinn had a rubber stamp passing legislation.

When Rod Blagoevich was governor there were standoffs so bad between Madigan, Blago, and then Senate president Emil Jones, that US Senator Dick Durbin was called in to mediate to heal the factions of the Democrats.

Madigan is also the chairman of the Democratic Party in the state, which gives him double power.  As Democratic Party Chairman, we was able to witness first hand the sleaze the state Democratic party threw out there in the 117th district race.  It was disgraceful, and I am gong to leave it at that.

I have been watching this closely.  What I am seeing is either Rauner bows down to Madigan’s wishes, or we will enter the third year without a state budget.

One of Madigan’s demands that I noticed was his demand that Rauner would not veto Senate bill.  This is a bailout of the Chicago Public School system and would give Southern Illinois students the short end of the stick.

Senate Bill 1124, Amendment 3, drafted by senate Republicans is a compromise bill, that will be a more fair and equitable way of school funding.  It is gaining bi-partisan support.  You can see the formula on State Senator Dale Fowlers, website at http://senatorfowler.com.

Here is where we are at.  The state is in such a mess, and I hate to say it but a tax increase is going to happen.  What is sickening is the democrats in both houses are wanting this to be retroactive.  I have seen figures that for the rest of the year, there will be a payroll deduction pushing 6%.

Being a fiscal conservative, I feel a tax increase slows down the economy.  In any tax situation, a more fair and equitable way is a sales tax.

Read some of the monthly figures that are being distributed to our schools.  There have been several life-safety and capital improvements to our districts throughout the county.

When sales taxes are raised, everyone contributes.  I hate to go that route for our state, but that is where I am afraid we are heading.

Let me address the pension issue this state is facing.  I have had conversations with two retired  state troopers over the last week in fear of losing their pensions.

One is recently retired, one has been retired for several years after serving over thirty years?  Do both men deserve their pensions?  In my view, every penny.  How many holidays did they miss with their families.  How many times were they out in blizzards and severe weather keeping us safe.  A good retirement is a tradeoff for the sacrifice of their service.

Teachers Retirement System or TRS is on fumes in this state as we speak.  How TRS works it is a trust fund for retired teachers in which they have contributed to over the years.   School teachers do not pay into Social Security.  This fund has been raided for other causes.

I fear for the future of retired teachers, and some teachers that are getting close to retirement age.  Ones that have dedicated their lives to the education of our children, should not have to worry about how they are going to live in the future.

Other than politicians dipping into pension funds, in which both parties are guilty this is how we got into this mess.  Whether you want to believe it or not, patronage is still alive in the state.

It was not as bad when Bruce Rauner was elected, but it was horrible when Rod Blagoevich was elected.  So that positions were filled by members of their own party, several were bought out and offered a pension for life.  In several instances, the state would bring the recent retirees back as a consultant.

I know of individuals that were in their early 40’s and had under twenty years of state employment this happened to.  You are looking at paying these individuals a very good pension for half of their lives. I know of several this happened to when Blago was elected.  I do not fault the individuals at all.  If it was me, it would have been an offer I could not refuse.

In this process, there has been a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour in the state.  There are those who say this will raise additional tax dollars to the state by increasing wages.  All this will cause massive inflation, and will continue to stunt the growth of a stagnant economy in the state.  There will be a lot of people signing up for unemployment too.

There are very few employers in this county of people that work by the hour that pay fifteen bucks an hour.  Most are employed in neighboring counties.

Here is another side of the coin.  There are some that look down upon people who work for minimum wage.  No matter how advanced a society gets, there will still have to be people to cook your food, check you out at the grocery store and stock the shelves.  It is better to be a productive member of society than sitting around doing nothing.

We live in a corrupt state.  A state that has became the laughing stock of the nation.  A state that the population is hemorrhaging..   What is sad that “We the People” will be the ones that suffer, having to bail it out.

The ones that have been suffering and will continue to suffer are the ones that are most vulnerable.  The state has just flat skipped state aid payments over time.  Because of this Zeigler-Royalton could not meet payroll for their teachers late last school year, just as an example.

Mike Madigan needs to go.  The only way to get him gone is term limits.  Otherwise, he will run Springfield until he can’t no more.

I am not going to give Governor Rauner a free pass either.  My biggest fault with him is he is running for reelection through this process.  The primary is several months away, and it is more than a year to the general election.  Pull the campaign adds until we see an end to this.

The most thing we can do is pray.  Pray for a reasonable solution that both parties can agree to.  Most of all pray for the most vulnerable in our society that would be affected the most.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.bnd.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article158117754.html

BELLEVILLE, IL (Congressman Mike Bost.  Belleville News Democrat.  Please click on the link above to read the op-ed piece.  Here is an excerpt below.)

Charles “Chas” Karidis, of Madison County, had dreams of being a husband and father, and making his mark on the world. He wanted to be a good role model for his younger brother, Niko. Sadly, these aspirations came to an end in November 2013 when Chas’ mom, Kari, received a phone call that no parent wants to receive. Kari, an assistant principal at Collinsville High School, learned that Chas had succumbed to a battle with heroin addiction just after his 23rd birthday.

This painful loss of a child led Kari to launch Companion’s Companion, a not-for-profit organization that provides support and assistance through education, coordination of resources, support, and advocacy to the companions of people suffering from addiction. Sadly, organizations like Kari’s are needed now more than ever.

by Steve Dunford

In my time on this earth, which is approaching a half a century, I have never witnessed a more divided country.

I have always had said that politics is worth not losing friends over.  I lost a few during this last election cycle.  I made amends with one, but there are some that will not speak to me since I am a conservative.

Because I am a conservative, my ballot over the years had more R’s colored in or in the past punched than D’s, but I have never voted a straight ticket.  Even though I had to hold my nose to vote for John McCain, and was not wild about Mitt Romney, but I have never voted for a Democrat in a presidential race.

I am going to share my path into becoming a never Trumper to casting my vote without reservation for Donald Trump.   If he got the GOP nomination, I was hoping for a third party candidate that had a chance in the general election.  I thought he was rude, crude, and obnoxious.

I feel Megyn Kelly is an outstanding journalist. She asked then candidate Donald Trump a fair question.  When he responded after the debate to the question that she was probably having her period in some very crude terms, I was thinking to myself this man is nuts.

I was lock, stock, and barrel behind Mike Huckabee for president.  He dropped out a few days before the Illinois Primary.  There were some that felt I should go to the polls like a good Southern Baptist and support Ted Cruz.  I felt the SBC threw Huckabee under the bus and was pushing Cruz.  It was between Ben Carson and Marco Rubio for me, so I ended up voting for Rubio.

When it was pointing heavily that Donald Trump was going to get the Republican nomination, I saw a difference in him and told a few when talking politics with others.  My friends who were wearing Make America Great hats already, welcomed me into the fold.

It came out a few weeks later, he accepted Jesus Christ as his savior and Lord of his life.  Tele-evangelist Paula White led him to the Lord, and met with Focus on the Family president Dr James Dobson a few days later.  Here is a statement that Dobson issued to several publications.  This is from Charisma magazine in June of 2016:

“Only the Lord knows the condition of a person’s heart. I can only tell you what I’ve heard. First, Trump appears to be tender to things of the Spirit. I also hear that Paula White has known Trump for years and that she personally led him to Christ.

“Do I know that for sure? No. Do I know the details of that alleged conversion? I can’t say that I do.

“But there are many Christian leaders who are serving on a faith advisory committee for Trump in the future. I am among them. There are about 45 of us that includes Franklin Graham, Robert Jeffress, Jack Graham, Ben Carson, James Robison, Jerry Johnson, and many others whom you would probably know.”

Deeper in the campaign, I began to change.  I saw a difference in Donald Trump.  It was because what the bible calls “A New Creature in Chirst.”   In fact the last time I was this comfortable in voting for a presidential candidate was when George W. Bush was running for re-election in 2004.

I was mesmerized when the returns came in on election night.  Honestly, I was expecting a Hillary Clinton landslide.

I have said this several times.  The Sunday before the election, God’s people were gathered around the altars of America on their knees.  It was not an organized effort, but most churches had their bibles open quoting 2 Chronicles 7:14

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

I am going to be brutally honest I was in fear of a Hillary Clinton presidency, which most conservative evangelicals were.

Fox News was gloating.  The liberal networks, and Time and Newsweek already printed President Clinton issues.  The words a nation in “crisis” was first used by house minority leader Nancy Pelosi.  Others have followed.

So far President Trump has tried to accomplish what Candidate Trump said he would do.  Moderates in his own party has tried to run from him.  It shows how tight the beltway boys and girls are in both parties in my opinion.

What started as crisis turned to activism, the activism has turned to down right hatred.

We have had three celebrities in the Hollywood crowd that has made what are blatant assassination attempts on the life of the president.  First it was Madonna, second it was the beheading image of Kathy Griffin, and recently it was Johnny Depp on foreign soil.

When it comes to movies, I am more of a spectator than an analyst.  I don’t know much about cinematography, but I know enough to know Johnny Depp can act.  He is versatile enough to play Jack Sparrow, and turn around and play Willy Wonka, my untrained eye can say he can flat out act.  I have watched my last movie of his.

In all three cases, the words I was joking was used.  It is no joke to assume assassination attempts on a sitting president.  There is a time to joke.  In fact anyone that knows me at all, knows that I am “full of it.”  There are some things that you don’t joke about, and this is one.  You are also not protected by free speech, by the proverbial yelling fire in a theater either.

This is fresh off of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise being gunned down by James Hodgkinson from Belleville, as well as Joseph Pickett, from Edwardsville, making death threats to President Trump on social media.  I don’t know if this is coincidence, but I feel the Secret Service should keep a close eye on the Metro East.

Anyone making any type of threat to President Trump should be investigated heavily by the secret service.  Some celebrities as well as some politicians from the left have talked about overthrowing the US government, that is borderline treason in my book.

The lack of respect for the office of President that some of the press that leans to the left bothers me.  I would understand this after referring to him the first time, but when someone refers to him as Trump over and over bothers me.  Address him with respect, It is President Trump.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

by Steve Dunford

In 1983 Anne Murray had a hit called A Little Good News.  Sometimes in the news cycle, you deliver more bad than good news, it is just the nature of the business.

Here in Illinois we are entering the possibility of the third year without a budget, with our second governor.  The only solution to the problem is to get Mike Madigan out as speaker.

Every Monday morning, the men of my church, Calvary Baptist Church meet for prayer, bible study and breakfast.  Most of the time we have donuts, sometimes, there is a lady in the church that fixes a breakfast better than you can get any restaurant.

It is usually about ten of us.  If someone would listen we could fix all the world’s problems in 30 minutes or less.  The conversation turned to a rant about Springfield.  I told everyone to look at me.  I am gray, fat, and bald.  I said Madigan was elected to the Illinois Legislature when I was six months old.  That is the problem.

We live in a country that is divided.  Love him or hate him, Donald Trump is our president.  The reason I believe he is in office, because people were on their knees the Sunday before the election, asking God to give us his will,  and who he wants in the White House.  If you don’t like the man, pray for him.

Last week was a tough week.  I published some obituaries of some that I was very close to their families.  When House Majority Steve Scalise was shot, just put it the way it is, by a nut from the Metro East added to the said week I had.

Since the fall of the coal industry in the late 80’s and early 90’s we have struggled in this county.

When I still lived in Sesser, I made friends with Michael Nix, who was pastor of the Church of Christ in town.  He took me to the Maid Rite in Christopher one day, and picked my mind for several hours.

He asked when people would tell me where they used to work they use numbers, he assumed they were coal mines and I told him.  I gave him all the numbers of the Old Ben, Freeman, and Consol mines, explained where they were located.

I then told him how times were good in the county, and how Benton, West Frankfort, Christopher, and Sesser had bustling downtowns.  He was amazed that Sesser had a Chevrolet dealer, and Christopher had a Ford dealer at one time.

I told him with Old Ben Coal having five operating mines in the county at one time, times were great.  UMWA health care was outstanding.  I told him our savior to our economy was Continental Tire expanding in Mt. Vernon, and Big Muddy Correctional Center.  I also told him the expansion of AISAN has helped.

I did an experiment on Friday.  I had to take care of a couple things in town.  I sat incognito in the storefront of the old Jacobs-Lane Jewelers building here in West Frankfort.

I remember a time that on a Friday afternoon those sidewalks were bustling, especially when the local merchants had their sales.  The parking lot on the corner of Emma and Poplar used to be full, there were very few cars.

It took 17 minutes for someone to pass me by, and it was a kid riding his bike.  I became depressed for a minute, then I began to think how great Franklin County is, and how we have so much to offer.  I am going to turn the bleak picture into a happy one.

We had two big shots in the arm this week.  The first is the state seeking a vendor for the Rend Lake resort, the second was last night the Toler Cinema has been sold and going to reopen as a theater.

Right after college, I took a temporary job as a ranger at Wayne Fitzgerell.  When I was finished it rolled into a job for IDOT.

This was in the early 90’s when the resort was brand new.  When I would patrol there, I was thinking what an awesome facility for this county.

Every time I would go to an event, pass by in a boat, camping or fishing at the state park I was mesmerized.  It is sad the state it is in.

The resort will be resurrected soon.  Any time I was there, the majority of the license plates on vehicles were out of state, especially Missouri.  Dollars spent here will have a domino effect, meaning more jobs, and employees that will be spending money.  A good economy breeds jobs.

Look at the picture to the left that Tesa Glass of the Mt. Vernon Register-News took at the announcement of the state reopening the resort.  With the legislators standing there at the lakefront, paints a picture how blessed we are in this county.  I see optimism in this.

In a side note, Mt. Vernon is blessed to have two great daily newspapers.  Most major cities only have one paper.  I used to read the R-N a lot when I was in the King City on a daily basis a few years ago.  It is a great publication.

,There was excitement on the social media site Talk Benton last night when Maranda Rush shared about the sale of the Toler Cinema building and a theater would be built.

I had a great half hour conversation on the phone with Maranda last night.  When it reopens, those are tax dollars going into the coffers of Franklin County that Williamson and Jefferson Counties are receiving now.

I just checked the little blurb I put out last night.  Currently it sits at 16,798 views on Facebook.  That is a record for this site.  It shows the excitement.

Part of the excitement for me is the memories that most of us in the county have in that building.  I am going to share mine in another piece.

To have venues like movie theaters in the county, we have to support them.  In general we need to support the local businesses in this county as much as possible.

Maranda’s conversation last night was very uplifting.  She had a vision for a theater back in Benton.  The years she spent working at Toler Cinema became a strong passion of hers.  The investors are going to make this come to pass.

We both talked about the vision for this county in general.  I shared a lot of them last week in the column on I-57.

I used to be a long winded preacher, and now I have turned into a long winded writer.  I am going to preach at the residents of this county now.

There are two things that is a general feeling about this county.  The first is the complaints there is nothing to do here….I am bored…..there is nothing for the kids to do.

The second is the inferiority complex we have.  It is because most of us have lost our vision.

Consider what this bible verse shares:

Proverbs 29:18 ¹⁸Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

There is good things happening here because we have so many residents in this county that are visionaries.

Develop a vision for the future.  I have a vision for several things.  One is a vision where to take this website.  The extensive growth will result in advertising dollars.

A vision for the future creates hope.  Put your hope and trust in the Lord first.

That is more than a little good news.  That is the best news that you will ever hear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by Steve Dunford

It is a near daily thing to hear of an accident on Interstate 57, where West Frankfort, West City, Benton and/or Sesser fire and rescue is toned out to a wreck on the interstate.

I read a feasibility study right before IDOT started the project expanding to six lanes between Mt. Vernon and Marion.  At the time, and I am quite sure it is still true today. the stretch between Interstates 64 and 24 is the third heavily traveled stretch of  interstate in a rural area in the nation.

There are currently over 30,000 vehicles per day travel on I-57 throughout the county.  By 2030, it is projected that 48,000 vehicles will pass daily.

The six lane project is not going to make it, by the proposed completion date of 2017.  I read a few weeks ago, completion is now slated for  2019.

When the project will be complete through Franklin County, Interstate 57 will not have any problem handling the traffic load.  Until then, I feel the speed limit needs to be dropped to 65.

All my life, I have watched reruns of Andy Griffith.  I was thinking of the episode where Barney Fife was given the motorcycle to drive.  He started writing tickets for people going one m.ph. over the speed limit.  He had the phrase, you give them one they will take two, you give them two, they will take three.

I haven’t driven in three years for health concerns.  I just know when I drove, that I counted on that extra five mph., to play with.  I would set my cruise at 75 on the interstate, and was passed by some like I was sitting still.

The bottom line is slow down, don’t be talking on your phone, and over all pay attention.

IDOT recently announced they will be installing guide cables in the median to prevent accidents with vehicles crossing into other lanes.

Here is the other side of the coin.  With the number of cars that I stated come through Franklin County on a daily basis,  we are sitting on a gold mine that we have not scratched the surface of.

The three interchanges throughout the county, are underdeveloped to say the least.

Going north to south, yes there is a few things that have developed at the Whittington exit.  What sticks out to me is a curbed four lane road that is north of the golf course, with fire  hydrants, and  a huge parking lot, that goes to absolutely to the middle of no where.

Talking with people from out of the area, a lot of people from the St. Louis metropolitan area have discovered Rend Lake.  Carlyle is too crowded for some, and Land between the Lakes is becoming more snake infested since the U.S Forest Service has taken over management from the Tennessee Valley Authority.

That area that I mentioned is prime for development.  Rend Lake is a huge economic boost to the region, however, I believe it can become a vacation destination for more and more people.

I am going to lump Benton and West Frankfort together, since there are a lot of similarities.   When you travel in the Southern States, towns that are comparable sizes have usually two or three exits.

I am 47 years old.  There has been talk of an exit at Petroff road.  There could be an exit off of 7th Street in West Frankfort as well.  Both would make easy access into underdeveloped industrial parks in both towns.

Easy interstate access would bring some much needed industrial type jobs to the county.

The talk of development of the Benton Airport property is encouraging.  There is so much that can be done with interstate frontage.

Benton would be a more likely candidate because of the 24 miles between Mount Vernon, but I think a chain motel would go well in one of the towns, or both.

Several years ago, I worked at what used to be the Days Inn that is going to be a gas station anytime.  I worked three days a week in the winter, I worked at least five days a week during the summer.

There would be at least 20 families a night during the summer that would walk out because there was not a pool.

There has been the widely rumored frontage road that would connect the Petroff and Route 14 exits if the Petroff Road exit is completed one day.

Between the two, a mid level hotel such as a Holiday Inn Express, Drury Inn, Comfort Inn or Hampton Inn would be pushing full capacity.  Interstate frontage could mean development of more businesses such as car dealerships as well as additional franchise restaurants.

One positive move I feel is the city of West Frankfort buying the VF Mall and all the land surrounding it.  There are very few things that can lure people off the interstate in West Frankfort.  The greatest is the mall itself.  The land around the mall is ripe to be developed for hotel and restaurant space.

Already, the new Taco Bell has been open a little over a month now.  I feel it is the first of great things.

As residents of Franklin County, we need to look northward to see how Mt. Vernon has grown, and how Marion has exploded and keeps growing.

We have every resource, land, easy water access, a busy interstate that cuts through the heart of the county, and a ready work force.  Both junior college districts can help prepare anyone in the county to take on any type of new industry.

I am just sharing my two cents worth on the subject.