Illinois First: Swing Districts Favored over Minority Areas

Chicago Reporter, The, Nov-Dec, 2001 by Beth Musgrave, Jennifer Whitson, Pamela A. Lewis, Cyril Mychalejko

Every time it rains, the staff at the Calumet Park Library on West 127th Street drag out plastic covers, wastebaskets and buckets to protect the 15,000 to 20,000 books in the storefront library.

Although the collection has suffered more than $5,000 in damages in the past 10 years, the library has been able to get state money to replace the carpet--but not the roof.

Less than 10 miles away in southwest suburban Palos Hills, seven city parks enjoy shiny new jungle gyms, swings and sandlots--all paid for with $123,900 from Illinois FIRST, the Fund for Infrastructure, Roads, Schools and Transportation, a five-year, $12 billion public works program.

Since 1999, politics, rather than need, has been the rule as Gov. George H. Ryan and state lawmakers, without debate or public scrutiny, doled out $789 million from a pool of Illinois FIRST money, The Chicago Reporter has found.

The Reporter obtained a database from the governor's office under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act and analyzed 6,685 grants made by Ryan and the four top leaders in the Illinois General Assembly--Senate President James "Pate" Philip, Senate Minority Leader Emil Jones Jr, Speaker of the House Michael Madigan and House Republican Leader Lee Daniels.

All of the money but Ryan's portion is termed "member initiative" funds and is controlled by the legislative leaders. The money is distributed to other legislators for public works projects in their districts. Ryan, meanwhile, sponsored projects of his own choosing across the state.

State Rep. Anne Zickus, a Republican who represents Palos Hills, received more than $7 million in Illinois FIRST member initiative grants for projects in her district, including the money for the playgrounds.

South suburban Calumet Park lies in the state's 29th Representative District, which received less than $300,000 over the last two years. State Rep. David E. Miller, a freshman lawmaker who began representing the district in January; said he has tried to get another $50,000 in Illinois FIRST funds for the library roof but so far has failed.

Miller is a Democrat in a district that is 78 percent black and safely Democratic. Zickus' district is 85 percent white and is a battleground in the fight for control of the Illinois House of Representatives.

Miller is well aware of the spending gap. "There are severe parity issues," he said. "It's one thing to try to control the House--and this really is a bipartisan pattern--but it eventually affects the constituents, and the neediest districts suffer."

The winners of these Illinois FIRST funds were areas like the southwest suburbs and north suburban Lake County--political hot spots where neither Democrats nor Republicans have a firm footing. The losers were districts in Chicago and the south suburbs, especially those with large minority populations, and in rural parts of central and southern Illinois, where one party has a clear edge.

"These decisions are definitely not need-driven," said Democratic state Rep. Thomas J. Dart, who represents parts of the South Side and south suburbs. Democratic leaders "want this money to go predominantly to the folks in the swing districts--to get voters to re-elect Democrats. But swing districts are in more affluent areas."

The Reporter found:

* Ryan and the state's four legislative leaders collectively spent nearly one-third of the money, or $247 million, on projects they sponsored throughout the state.

* Democrats and Republicans are using the money to bolster legislators in politically vulnerable districts. Most of the top money netters in each party either won close races in their last two elections or hold top leadership positions.

* Excluding the party leaders, legislators from predominantly white districts received an average of nearly $1 million more than lawmakers from black districts. Legislators from Latino districts got the least, $1.2 million less than their white colleagues.

* The party leaders make final decisions on how to spend the member initiative money without public oversight.

Dennis Culloton, press secretary for Ryan, said each legislative leader gave Ryan his final list of Illinois FIRST member initiatives. Ryan reviewed the list to make sure it included only public works projects, rejecting some that didn't fit. But, Culloton said, the governor wasn't involved in deciding how the legislative leaders distributed their funds.

And legislative leaders disagreed about whether the money was used politically.

Steve Brown, press secretary for Madigan, a Southwest Side Democrat, said Illinois FIRST money was distributed throughout the state based on need and requests from legislators. "I'm not aware of requests that individual legislators--be they white, Hispanic or African American--have made that got ignored," he said.

"I would say that those in targeted districts do benefit more," said Gregg Durham, a spokesman for Daniels, who's from west suburban Elmhurst. "A lot of times, though, people who have targeted races are also more active in trying to get more things for their districts."