Pubdate: Mon, 11 Jan 2010 Source: SouthtownStar (Tinley Park, IL) Copyright: 2010 Digital Chicago, Inc. Contact: http://www.southtownstar.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4719 Author: James E. Gierach HYNES' VIEWS PUSHES VOTER TO QUINN'S SIDE Comptroller Dan Hynes opposes medical marijuana for the sick and dying. Hynes opposes the sale of the Thomson prison to the federal government to remove another unaffordable prison albatross from the backs of Illinois taxpayers while stoking a misplaced fear that "Gitmoees" represent some special risk if caged at a maximum security prison in a little Podunk, Ill., river town, a "difficult issue" for Hynes. And Hynes opposes a reduction in Illinois' burgeoning 45,000-inmate population through an early release of nonviolent offenders program, despite a remarkable increase in Illinois' prison population during the drug-war era, ignoring a state fiscal reality that gobbles tax receipts faster than taxpayers can lay golden eggs. School funding, not prison funding, is the priority, Comptroller Hynes. Hynes' financial immaturity and fear-mongering just about has me sold on Gov. Pat Quinn. James E. Gierach Palos Park - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr