Article Week of February 9th, 2009
The House of Representatives met two days last week for seating charts to be completed, office assignments to be made and new members to have a chance to find their way around the chamber. Since the recent impeachment trail and removal of former governor Blagojevich took so much of the time and energy of General Assembly members as well as staff , it seemed that perhaps not as many bills were being filed as in previous years. Well, hundreds of bills were filed last week in both chambers of the General Assembly. At the time I write this, seven hundred and ninety one pieces of legislation have now been filed in the House and twelve-hundred and sixty-three have been filed in the Senate. In the coming weeks there will be thousands more bills filed. It sort of makes you wonder how we are getting by without all of these great ideas, doesn’t it? Actually, these proposals represent what is considered to be improved public policy by those elected to the General Assembly. One of my most important responsibilities representing the 109 th District is to keep track of these proposals and eventually vote on many of them as they make it to the House floor. As I have mentioned many times before, for me to do a good job, I will need your input. You can get involved and track these proposals at www.ilga.gov
I want to thank the many people who have already either gone to my website at www.peopleforeddy.com or written to me at Box 125, Hutsonville, Il 62433, or 222-N Stratton Building, Springfield, IL, 62706. I sincerely appreciate and value your thoughts. There will be many proposals this spring that could affect your life in positive or negative ways and I am not an expert on all of those issues. You might be the person who can provide insight about a proposal that will save us from unintended consequences which often occur when we do not have input from those who are directly involved with the subject of the legislation. I will listen and I will make your position known.
I can assure you that I will support legislation that protects our Second Amendment Right to bear arms. There have been a couple of conceal and carry bills introduced which I will co-sponsor and strongly support. I will also strongly oppose any attempt to limit or restrict those same Second Amendment Rights. The oath I take when I am sworn into office is to preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States and the State of Illinois. I believe that means to protect the rights of law abiding citizens. If we concentrated more on crime control rather than gun control, I think this state would be better off.
I can also assure you that I will fight to protect the rights of the unborn. I am a pro-life legislator and will oppose any attempt to promote what are known as “pro-choice” positions. I guess my concern is the fact that the innocent life which has no “choice” has to have people willing to defend it, in any form. That is how I feel, that is what I have successfully ran for office and been elected four times on and that is how I will vote and that includes embryonic stem cell research when that research creates life with the specific intention of taking life for scientific research. Our Nation is richly blessed and that activity is not, in my eyes, “bless-able”.
On another social issue note, I will also oppose any public policy that in any way dilutes the institution of marriage between a man and a woman. There will be several attempts this spring to promote gay marriage or civil unions.
I will also fight for jobs in our area and this state. I think that we have, for the last several years, made Illinois a difficult place for companies and small business to view as “job friendly”. In a global economy that is very short-sighted. But, we also lose jobs to other states when we put Illinois at a competitive disadvantage with our neighboring states. The fact is that in the last several years many jobs have left our state and we have lost more jobs to other states than other countries. Of course, there is a balance with the rights and interests of labor when we consider policies that create jobs. I will also strongly consider how we are treating workers in the process. Many times both sides have good points and it seems when business, labor, education and government work together, we are pretty successful here in Illinois. Balance is important, if any one of these important partners is too dominant or too weak, the four legged stool topples.
I am also, at heart, an educator. I will work hard to make sure that education policy in this state moves toward equity, balance and accountability. The fact that seventy-seven percent of the students in our great state attend schools that are not funded at the minimal level recommended by the Education Funding Advisory Board (EFAB) bothers me a lot. In some property wealthy regions of Illinois, students are supported on a per pupil basis with over twenty thousand dollars and in other property poor areas children are not supported by half as much. That is a disgrace and likely a violation of their civil rights. We also put too much fiscal pressure on property owners to fund our education system. And, as an educator, I also understand accountability for public funds is important and I will support common-sense accountability measures that have a pure purpose and improve the education of our children.
Last week Dan Hynes predicted that a budget deficit of almost $9 billion would have to be addressed in the FY10 State Budget. I have long stated that the actual budget deficit was around $5 billion in FY09. It appears that increased pension payments caused by the pension raids of a few years ago, the continued increase in health care costs caused by expansions that were not paid for in previous budgets and failing revenues due to a continuing faltering national economy could add another $4 billion to that FY09 $5 Billion deficit. This is a serious problem caused by horribly irresponsible economic and fiscal policies and budgeting practices over the past six years. Our responsibility is to deal with this problem in a serious manner. Cuts will be necessary and we have to prioritize state spending. It is your money, your input is vital as we face an unprecedented fiscal crisis in the coming months.
Finally, last week, Speaker Madigan introduced Senate Joint Resolution 1 on the House floor. According to the synopsis, this resolution “creates the Joint Committee on Government Reform to stand ready to work with the Governor and others to restore integrity to State government.” The committee will be made up of sixteen members. You might think that a bi-partisan committee which has the purpose of restoring integrity to state government might have equal bi-partisan representation. It does not. The majority party has decided to not allow equal representation by both parties. There will be ten Democrat members and six Republicans on the committee. Speaker Madigan defended the imbalance and stated matter-of-factly that, “it was his decision”.
He also made it a point to say that the committee meetings would be open to all of the people of Illinois. Anyone will be able to submit proposals for reform to the committee. Then of course, a majority of one party will decide of the proposal is a good proposal. I will keep you informed of the committee meetings and I urge you to get involved. If there is going to be a cleansing of government in this state, it must be by the people. As you can tell, the party in charge even establishes the committee make-up with the arrogant “business as usual” style that has helped to cause the very problem they claim to be addressing.
This week is an important one in Illinois. We celebrate the two hundredth year of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. As I listened to the debate last week regarding the need for a joint committee on ethics, I couldn’t help but wonder what Lincoln would think. We have faltered ethically in state government here in Illinois and it is time to change that. This historic anniversary of Lincoln’s birth is a great time to make it happen. I don’t think the arrogant controlling feature of a clearly one-sided committee is what Lincoln would have endorsed for the committee. But, we can lean on his words for guidance. Remember when Lincoln said, “you might fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” Keep that in mind, Mr. Speaker! Get involved and don’t be fooled.