A Couple of New Laws from 2010 Legislative Session

Over the next few weeks we will began to see a number of new laws signed by the Governor.  I will keep you updated on the recently enacted legislation and what the laws may mean for you and your family.  Below are a few proposals that have already become official statutes in the state of Illinois.

• McPier Reforms-Due to extremely lucrative conventions and expositions threatening to leave Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center for cities with far cheaper alternatives, the General Assembly passed a number of reforms to drive down the costs and keep these expositions in the state of Illinois.  These conventions bring in hundreds of millions in revenue for Chicago, but also provide quite a bit of tax revenue to the entire state.  Some of the reforms included in the legislation will allow competition for electrical service and end the practice of charging outrageous rates for food and beverage service (reports surfaced of $85 cases of soda).  A new seven member interim board was named, as well as a new trustee to serve 18 months. Continue reading »

Strong People, Strong Minds-This Community Will Rebuild

I wanted to take some time and commend the many residents of Dwight and surrounding communities for their strong wills and generous dedication to rebuilding the tornado ravaged areas throughout the region.  I think we have all heard time and time again that possessions can be replaced, lives can not.  We are all grateful that there were no casualties when the ferocious tornados ripped through two weeks ago, but we all are also aware that we have a lot of work before us.  I want everyone to know that the people of Illinois are the toughest, most resilient people in the nation, and we are all going to work together and do whatever it takes for each other to overcome this devastation.

Many times the worst brings out the best in people, and I can say first hand I saw this as neighbors, family, friends, and even complete strangers banded together to help each other out over the past couple weeks.  I want to assure you that at the state level we are going to provide all the necessary assistance possible.  As I am writing this the counties of Livingston, LaSalle, Kankakee, Peoria and Putnam are all considered state disaster areas.  The categorization of a federal disaster area at this time remains unknown, as damage estimates and financial losses are still being calculated. Continue reading »

63 Tries at Reform, House Democrats Stop them All

During the last week of session most of the talk revolved around the disastrous budget situation, but there was some other little noticed action that could have been extremely beneficial to the taxpaying citizens of Illinois.  While the Democrat House members were busy pushing their woefully unbalanced and unconstitutional spending plan through the General Assembly, my House Republican colleagues and I were trying to get over sixty bills that would reduce and reform the overspending practices of the past eight years called for a vote.  As hard as we have tried all year long to get our proposals to the House floor for a simple debate, the Democrat majority pushes back even harder to ensure they are never heard before the public body.

The obvious question is what are they so worried about?  What could be in these legislative initiatives that they fear so much?  Is there a chance that if some of these ideas are brought up for an actual vote they may just be too good pass up and therefore jeopardize some of their sacred spending priorities that simply can not be afforded right now?  All of those questions are probably true, so why is it that members of the majority party actually sign on to co-sponsor some of these bills only to turn around and officially declare they should not be allowed to be called for a vote.

All you have to do is look no further than a few of the actual measures proposed that were not allowed to be debated.  They are not controversial and as I said before it is hard to come up with a reasonable excuse not to support them.  One of the most common-sense initiatives would allow the Auditor General to conduct a forensic audit of all state spending, hiring, and contracts.  If there was ever a better time to review the billions in spending with a fine-toothed comb than right now, I can’t think of one. Continue reading »

Borrow, Borrow—Spend, Spend—Oh What a Mess This Is

Last week a spending plan passed the House and was sent on to the Governor for final approval.  I guess you could call it a budget, but in reality it is more comparable to a document full of false promises that grants money which is not available to a number of programs and services.  It’s similar to going to a store trying to buy a $40 product by giving the cashier a $20 dollar bill and just walking away.  Essentially about half of the spending included in the budget bill does not have revenue to back up the costs.  So once again Illinois taxpayers are on the hook for a woefully unbalanced budget that does nothing to stop the eight years of overspending which have created a deficit that is expected to top $13 billion.

The three main components of the House Democrat budget plan include borrowing to pay pension obligations, granting Governor Quinn unilateral power to borrow, spend and cut, and normal spending authority to pay for day-to-day programs and services.  The overall spending authority in the actual budget legislation is almost identical to last year, which is somewhat ironic considering when the current fiscal year comes to an end in July the budget will have incurred a $13 billion deficit.  So instead of even trying to make a significant dent in that deficit, spending will continue to outpace actual available revenue by at least that much. Continue reading »