The anti-Midas touch of Gov. Rod Blagojevich is already rubbing off on his mostly top secret, two-year plan to combat unemployment problems in Southern Illinois.

The governor announced recently that he wants to move 148 state transportation office workers to an undisclosed community in the southern part of the state.

Last week, however, the Illinois Department of Transportation confirmed that the number of people who may be moving may be reduced to 110.

It seems that some executives who oversee the affected office workers would be allowed to stay in Springfield. The minions who do the grunt work will be the ones heading south, at least as of this week.

If things keep moving in this direction, the final tally will have the governor moving a couple of old snow plows and a dozen orange traffic cones to a warehouse in Mulkeytown next winter and calling that economic development.

Where will it go?

Union officials have taken a keen interest in the job-shift proposal, which was apparently a surprise to everyone except the governor, a few top IDOT officials and state Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, who said he hopes the jobs come to his Franklin County community.

Forby, who is up for re-election in November, said he's been talking to the administration about moving state workers to his district for about two years.

What's been confusing to everyone, aside from the shrinking number of jobs that may be in play here, is that even after two years, no actual facility has been publicly identified for the workers.

Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch tried to explain the lack of office space by comparing the search for a building to shopping.

"You have to shop around to look for the best bargain and best price," Rausch said.

Rausch added that if the locale were disclosed before an agreement is reached, the office building owner "could just jack up the price."

Like everything else about this move, there is something fishy about Rausch's conceptual understanding of how government office leasing works.

Unless there is an emergency, state officials are supposed to solicit bids when they spend your money.

Rather than secretively going around "shopping" for office space, the state is supposed to publicly advertise for bidders.

The idea of bidding for space is not only to get the best deal, but to take politics out of the equation.

Rausch, by the way, is leaving her post at the end of the month for a new job in public relations in St. Louis.

Toxic situation

Environmental groups descended on the Capitol Wednesday to push legislation aimed at eliminating toxic chemicals from baby items, toys, cosmetics and, apparently, the offices of lawmakers.

As part of their legislative agenda, they held a "walking press conference" in which they used a hand-held X-ray fluorescence analyzer to test legislators' offices for toxic chemicals.

They could have dispensed with the high-tech equipment.

We could have just told them, yes, this place is toxic.

For the third time in his tenure, the inability of the governor and lawmakers to work together is threatening to send the legislative session into a lengthy, bitter overtime session. Summer vacations are being canceled. Taxpayers will be on the hook for more overtime costs for lawmakers.

One lobbyist told me his days have become pretty predictable.

In the morning, he checks in with the folks in the House to make sure there is money for his programs in the House version of the budget.

Then, he goes over and checks in with the Senate to make sure there is money for his programs in the Senate version of the budget.

The message here, with eight scheduled days left in the legislative session, is that the people in the House still aren't talking with the people in the Senate about getting things resolved.

11th District race

The race to replace U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller has become pretty toxic too, with Democrat Debbie Halvorson of Crete feuding with Republican candidate Martin Ozinga III of Homer Glen.

Ozinga is tangled up in a lawsuit. Halvorson is tangled up in the mess in Springfield.

Amidst all the sniping, Green Party candidate Jason Wallace had this to report last week: He graduated from Illinois State University.

With his scholarly studies now complete, he can now join in the, um, fun.

KURT ERICKSON heads the Lee Enterprises Springfield Bureau, which serves The Southern and other Lee newspapers; he can be reached at kurt.erickson@lee.net or (217) 789-0865.