Retrial of Blagojevich Corruption Case Will Put Chicagoans Further in Debt

The jury for the Blagojevich trial couldn't agree on 23 of the 24 counts, and former Governor Rod Blagojevich was found guilty of only 1 charge, false statement (lying to FBI agents). While the juror who refused to find Blagojevich is still silent about her decision, other jurors are on Chicago news stations explaining their views. I was not in the courtroom and don't know what made certain jurors think he was not guilty on certain charges. I heard the tapes and listened to him speak on various talk shows. While I do think he was trying to sell the Senate seat, the trial is over and should be over for good.

Blagojevich couldn't be found for several months to pay for storage and yesterday his Elvis collection and political memorabilia was put on an auction block, including a $20,500 six-foot statue of Elvis. If he can't pay to keep that, how is he going to pay for a second trial? He's not, and that means that tax dollars from Chicagoans like me will be used to fund his second case. According to Chicago Breaking News, the Blagojevich trial was $67,463.32. This included the daily rates for the jurors to work, the mileage costs of mostly suburban jurors, their lunch, printing and copying jury questionnaires and other administrative expenses. While the rate is fair for the job, the fact is that Chicago simply doesn't have $67,463.32 more. If Blagojevich can't foot a second bill, we really won't have the option. His lawyers will become public defenders, and Chicagoans will suffer the consequences.

Chicagoans will already be paying 10 times as much in parking meters, according to Bloomberg.com. The guesstimated rate for meters is $11.6 billion over the next 75 years. Illinois currently has 10.3 percent of unemployed people in the U.S., according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This state is one of the largest for over-the-month unemployment decreases, from 5,621,900 in June 2010 to 5,601,700 in July 2010. Illinois went from having 6.4 percent unemployed in 2008 to 10.1 percent unemployed in 2009. Even those who have found jobs now or are freelancing until they find full-time employment again (like myself) spend more time playing catch-up and little time actually paying bills off completely. If we can't pay our own bills, how are we going to foot the bill for someone else?

Chicago's sales tax rate is now the same as Los Angeles, at 9.75 percent, and that was after Cook County lowered taxes 0.5 percent. Chicago couldn't even afford to buy a Christmas tree last year. For the first time since 1955, Chicago used a small Christmas tree instead of the 113 trees that stacked up to one big tree. We didn't even buy that Christmas tree. The Weivoda family in Palos Heights donated the tree to the city. When the tree first went up, Chicagoans were joking about the tree looking like it was from "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

Meanwhile Blagojevich will be appealing the one charge he was found guilty of and is headed to the Wizard World Comic Con event this weekend from Aug. 19 to Aug. 22. He'll be taking photos at 10:30 a.m. and signing autographs at 11 a.m. on Sat., Aug. 21 at Booth 401. Do I think he's guilty of trying to sell the Senate seat? Yes. Do I think he went through with it? Of course not. Do I think he should be retried? No. Even if he could afford the charges, which he can't, let the trial be done and over with. The jury heard enough evidence to not believe he was 100 percent guilty. They did our job. Now let's make jobs for Chicago instead of putting us further into the poor house.