Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Supports His Family - on the Taxpayer Dime

Let's talk about pork spending in Illinois for a few minutes, shall we?

Emil Jones, president of the Illinois Senate, is a staunch supporter of any of the actions of Governor Rod Blagojevich. Whether those acts are legal, quasi-legal, illegal or flat out breaches of the Illinois Constitution means nothing to Mr. Jones.

Let's look at one of the reasons Mr. Jones is so supportive.

A porky job was handed out to Lorrie Rickman Jones PhD back in March 2007. Ms Jones is a psychologist with a standing practice. There's no reason to believe she isn't qualified to do the job as a psychologist.

However, getting your hands on how much her practice may have received over the years from government contracts is like pulling teeth from a grizzly bear. I wonder if this information could even be obtained with a Freedom of Information Act request to the Governor, without a costly legal battle.

And what do you know, by some act of fate, Ms. Jones is coincidentally the wife of Senate President Emil Jones!

Mr. Jones is well-known for making sure his family lays their hands on juicy contracts and sub-contracts with the state, so with his track record over his 34 years in the General Assembly, a rational conclusion is that Ms. Jones has been on the state's payroll for years, but as a contractor and thus ineligible for any other benefits.

But that must not have quite been enough.

Earlier this year, Governor Blagojevich "convinced" his buddy Emil to change the job qualifications for the Director of the Division of Mental Health job. A job with a $138,000 annual salary.

This amendment yanked out the requirement that the director had to be licensed to practice medicine. Lorrie Jones, unfortunately, did NOT have that in her background. It also doesn't answer the question of whether or not she has any qualifications to manage thousands of people and a massive budget.

Ms. Jones getting this obviously politically-motivated job has also laid the groundwork for her to dip a third time into the taxpayer pocket, via the state employee retirement system. Digging through the arcane laws governing the retirement system leaves me believing she only has to hold the post for a year before she reaches the age of 65 to land that $82,000 a year, tax-free, pension.

Mr. Jones is also well-known for calling his critics racists if they challenge these familial contracts with the state.

Pork is pork, Mr. Jones. Race has nothing to do with it.