Jim Dey: Pritzkers' reported taxable income way down in 2022

Oct. 21—It's time once again to dive in to another round of quick takes on the people, places and events that were being talked about over the past week:

Buddy, can you spare a million?

Illinois' multibillionaire governor won't be selling apples on street corners anytime soon. But Gov. J.B. Pritzker's recently disclosed 2022 state and federal tax returns show — by his lofty standards — that his income crashed.

Pritzker and his wife reported a paltry $2.3 million in state taxable income in 2022. The Chicago Tribune reported "that's the lowest total" annual income Pritzker has revealed since he entered political life and began releasing tax records.

In 2021, the Pritzkers reported $18.5 million in state taxable income.

For 2022, the Pritzkers paid nearly $210,000 in federal income tax and nearly $109,000 in state income tax.

But, remember, the rich are different. The super-wealthy have all sorts of money-hiding options, and the Pritzkers are no exception.

They are beneficiaries of trusts that provide huge amounts of income. While the governor's office has refused to release specific details of the trusts that generate income for Pritzker family members, it did reveal Pritzker trusts paid 2022 income tax for beneficiaries — $42.3 million in federal income taxes and another $7.2 million in state income taxes.

Those numbers, of course, represent chump change compared to Pritzker's $3.5 billion net worth. Despite that lofty sum, he's just the fifth-richest member of his family.

Pritzker has used his fabulous wealth to advance his political career. He's spent an estimated $350 million on his two gubernatorial campaigns and given many more millions to Democrats in Illinois and elsewhere.

Record shows he made $1.1 million in undisclosed charitable contributions in 2022.

How much is enough?

Despite serving more than 45 years in prison, the state of Illinois wouldn't let Ronnie Carrasquillo go. So this past week, a Cook County judge did.

Associate Judge Alfredo Maldonado Wednesday re-sentenced Carrasquillo to time served in connection with his conviction for the 1976 murder of a police officer.

The judge recognized Carrasquillo's guilt but said the defendant is "a different man than (he was) Oct. 10, 1976" who had made "great strides" toward rehabilitation.

The much-publicized Carrasquillo case, details of which were reported in an August column, closes a long-standing legal controversy involving the Prisoner Review Board (RFB), Gov. J.B. Pritzker and prisoner advocates who said Carrasquillo's rehabilitation required his release.

The facts presented a legal balancing test — how much time and rehabilitation is necessary to punish a cop-killer?

The PRB repeatedly denied Carrrasquillo parole while, at the same time, Pritzker sat on his commutation power.

Finally, in a result-driven August opinion, the court of appeals ordered a new sentencing hearing.

It described Carrasquillo, 18 at the time of the crime, as a "de facto" juvenile because he was "impulsive and immature." The 2-1 decision also found Carrasquillo was serving a "de facto" (there's that word again) life sentence because the PRB is averse to releasing inmates convicted of killing a police officer.

The ruling was unusual because real juveniles in Illinois are 17 and under. But it virtually guaranteed Carrasquillo's release because the Illinois Supreme Court has established a 40-year sentencing ceiling for juvenile murderers except in the most heinous cases.

Now 65, Carrasquillo originally was sentenced under the state's old indeterminate sentencing laws to 200-600 years.

The shooting occurred in the midst of a gang melee that plainclothes police Officer Terrence Loftus tried to break up.

Carasquillo admitted the shooting but maintained he was firing "warning" shots, one of which struck Loftus in the head. Other testimony indicated the shooting was intentional.

Once incarcerated, Carrasquillo became a model prisoner, to the point that Thomas Breen, the lawyer who prosecuted the case decades ago, said Carrasquillo had earned release.

Prison officials appeared to agree. They held Carrasquillo at the Kewannee Life Skills Re-entry Center, a facility that prepares inmates for release.

Yes, deer

Country music star Tammy Wynette once sang, "Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind)."

While it will probably never make the country charts, Illinois state officials have rewritten that line to fit the season. "Be careful drivin' when deer have lovin' on their minds."

That's another way of saying that deer mating season is upon us, one consequence being that these heedless four-legged romantics do not pay attention to traffic.

That requires motorists to be on the lookout.

Illinois had 14,524 deer-related crashes in 2022 that generated 629 injuries and four deaths. They didn't do the deer any good either.

State officials said "more than 40 percent of those crashes" occurred in the last three months of 2022 — October, November and December.

Here is another statistic that should guide the thoughtful driver. More than 70 percent of the accidents occurred in rural areas, "especially during twilight and nighttime hours."

Champaign County is not among the 10 worst counties for car-deer crashes. They are Cook, Madison, McHenry, Lake, Will, Peoria, Fulton, Kane, Sangamon and Macoupin.

There are all kinds of warnings to consider, a big one being "not to veer suddenly" to avoid a deer because of the danger of losing control of the vehicle.

In the face of an accident, drivers are advised to pull off the road, turn on hazard lights, call 911, not leave their car to check on an injured deer and not attempt to pull the deer off the road.

Deer often travel in groups and sometimes double back after crossing a road. They also may stop in the middle of the road.

Motorists who see deer mating off the road are advised to keep on going. These star-crossed lovers, too, deserve some privacy.

Help wanted

Phyllis Clark, the longtime city clerk, recently announced that she's retiring, effective Nov. 6.

That's the same day that Mayor Diane Marlin will name her replacement.

Marlin said this week that, so far, no one has applied for the appointment. While she obviously has an appointee in mind, Marlin said she was "not going to speculate" on who might be interested.

Monday (Oct. 23) is the deadline for submitting an application.

Urbana officials said "application materials are posted on the city's website and are available at the clerk's office in the city building, 400 S.Vine S., and at the information desk at the library in Urbana, 210 W. Green St., U.

The appointee will fill the balance of Clark's term, which expires in early 2025.

This is Clark's second retirement as clerk. She served six terms from 1993 to 2017. She was appointed clerk in May 2020 to fill the unexpired term of City Clerk Charles Smyth and elected again in 2021.

Pseudo-history

It's time for Jim's Pseudo-Intellectual Book Club to take another deep dive into not-so-pseudo historical fiction.

There are two related recommendations today — each a foray into early World War II history — the devastating Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the equally devastating U.S. counter-punch a few months later at the Battle of Midway.

Author Jeffrey Shaara comes by writing talent naturally. His father, Michael Shaara, wrote "Killer Angels," a widely recognized masterpiece of historical fiction focusing on the Battle of Gettysburg during the Civil War.

The son took up his late father's pen, first completing a Civil War trilogy that included "Killer Angels."

A prolific writer, he's since branched out into other subjects, the Mexican War, the Korean War and World War II.

Today's recommendations are "To Wake the Giant," the Pearl Harbor story, and "The Eagle's Claw," concerning Midway.

There's more history than fiction in both of these highly readable books that tell their stories from both the U.S. and Japanese points of view.

Pearl Harbor was a solid Japanese victory. But the Japanese commander of the Dec. 7, 1941, surprise attack was not a true believer in the plan. Fearing counter-attack, he withdrew his planes and ships before doing as much damage as he could have.

For example, U.S. aircraft carriers were not in port, and Japanese pilots failed to hit Pearl's major oil depot. The architect of the plan, Admiral Yamamoto, knew the dramatic, but limited, victory would be insufficient to drive the U.S. out of the Pacific.

The Battle of Midway reflected Japan's desire to finish what was left undone at Pearl Harbor. But the worm turned, a consequence of brilliant intelligence work, astute battle planning and lots of luck.

They are both great stories and brilliant tutorials about the fortunes of war and the fallibilities of man.