Article Week of February 26th, 2007

The deadline to file House Bills is Tuesday, February 27th. The number of bills filed in the House as of Friday, February 23rd stands at 2,032. The Senate has 1,755 bills filed so far. Due to the number of bills now filed, committees have been assigned hundreds of bills for hearings. The next few weeks will be intense as the deadline for House Committee passage is March 23rd. There are just four weeks left for bills to filter through the committee process. If you are tracking legislation, be sure to check progress regularly at www.ilga.gov

In a very rare move, the House of Representatives has scheduled a special Committee of The Whole meeting for Tuesday, February 27th. The single issue subject of that hearing is electric rates. Unable to get leadership from the governor’s office regarding the electric rate increase issue, House members have called their own version of a special session in order to highlight facts related to the HUGE rate increases and that many AMEREN customers are experiencing. For months, Representatives have been asking the Governor’s office to fulfill his promise of calling a special session to deal with proposed electric rate increases that started January 1st. Prior to the fall election, the governor agreed to call such a session, but has not done so. In the meantime, a ten year electric rate freeze expired January 1st and new rates, set by a “reverse auction” process approved by the Commerce Commission have gone into effect.

The result of the rates set via the “reverse auction” process have left many in downstate Illinois with electric rate increases that have doubled and even tripled. These obscene increases far surpass the 40 to 50 percent increases projected by AMEREN just a few weeks ago. The highest rate increases seem to be to those individuals that trusted electric companies and took an additional discount when choosing all-electric homes in years past.

Members of the Commerce Commission are appointed by the Governor. When the Commerce Commission was considering the “reverse auction” process, Governor Blagojevich threatened to dismiss any Commission Member that voted in favor of this process. Well, they voted in favor of the process, but the Governor did not take any action against these individuals. The way I look at this is that the governor is supporting the current rates and process by allowing those individuals that set the rate process to continue to serve. He has done nothing to show any sign of leadership on the issue as people in Illinois suffer.

This is a complicated problem. A long term rate freeze alone will not solve this problem. I have stated for months that the General Assembly and the Governor must step forward and work out a realistic compromise on this issue. As long as House Speaker Madigan will not budge on his desire to impose a rate freeze and Senate President Jones will not consider lower phased in rates, gridlock will continue.

Leaders are elected to lead, especially in crisis situations. The rate increases facing people in downstate Illinois are of crisis proportions. Speaker Madigan, President Jones and Governor Blagojevich have an opportunity to show Illinois they are capable of leading. So far, as a group, they have failed miserably on this important issue.

There are other key issues facing us next week as well. HB138 passed out of committee and will likely be heard next week on the floor of the House. This is the so-called “Stem Cell Research and Cloning Prohibition Act”. Even though the bill title implies that cloning is not allowed, the act specifically allows embryonic stem cell research and something called “somatic cell nuclear transplantation”. The truth is that “somatic cell nuclear transplantation” is cloning. I will oppose this and other attempts by government to fund research that creates life for the purpose of taking life. As people have said for years, you can dress a pig up in a fancy suit and use perfume, but in the end, you still have a pig. Call it want you want, this is a human cloning bill that also destroys life.

Individuals in favor of the bill try to appeal emotionally to those with loved ones suffering from cancer, diabetes and other horrible illnesses by almost guaranteeing cures can be found through embryonic stem cell research. They also attempt to make anyone that opposes this appear to be uncaring of those afflicted with certain diseases. They cannot show ANY shred of evidence which indicates any success in this area although millions of dollars has already been spent. At the same time, adult and umbilical cord stem cells research that do not destroy life are showing signs of success. I strongly support these types of research.

Add to this debate the fact that if success in this endeavor were likely, private dollars would surely come forward from pharmaceutical companies and others in the medical industry. The government would not have to fund embryonic stem cell research if it were a sure thing like its proponents assert.

Legislation that I sponsored to protect rural home owners from onerous permitting and inspection fees set to be imposed by the Illinois EPA passed out of committee last week and is set to move in the House. HB613 passed in committee by a vote of 18-5. The bill limits the authority of the IEPA regarding rules they have set to pass that would cost rural Illinois home owners with septic systems hundreds of dollars a year in fees.

Let me know what you think about any of these issues or any issue of importance to you. E-mail me (reddyunit1@aol.com); write to me at Box 125, Hutsonville, IL 62433 or call us at 618-563-4128. You can also keep up with important issues at my web site: www.peopleforeddy.com