Week of April 6th, 2009

It was a very busy and eventful week in Springfield last week for sure. Probably the most talked about occurrence was the formal Indictment of former Governor Rod Blagojevich. The Statehouse was alive with the news on Thursday as a sixteen count Indictment was returned against the now defamed former Governor of Illinois. If convicted, Blagojevich is facing decades in prison for using his office and administration in the largest pay to play scheme in history. Basically, as the indictment states, state government in Illinois was for sale under his administration. Along with Blagojevich, several other key members of his staff and fund raisers were also charged. It will be months before it is all sorted out and all those involved will face a judge. In fact, Blagojevich himself has indicated that he will fight the charges and he is writing a book in which he will begin to name others in state government that he says are involved in despicable activities at tax payers expense.

The question really remains as to how many substantive changes will be made in state law that will stop some of the abuses that we witnessed under Blagojevich. Perhaps one of the first reactions to the indictment took place on the very day Blagojevich was indicted. On that day, SB364 passed in the House and was signed by the Governor the very next day. That legislation completely reconstituted the state’s five pension systems. As you will recall, there were several instances of misuse of authority for personal gain by certain members of the pension board during the last administration. So, Governor Quinn and others felt that the best way to proceed was to end the terms of all current members of all of those boards. In addition, the legislation gives the governor’s office unprecedented power over the naming the replacements. In fact, with the additional appointments that the governor’s office now has on the Teacher’s Retirement System Board (TRS), that office will essentially control the TRS Board. The legislation even fired the current executive director of TRS in the text of the law.

Whether the governor’s office should have additional power to appoint seats on the board is open to some debate. Teachers certainly do not like the new configuration. They claim that there is now too much power in the governor’s office and that is not a good thing. Of course, they quickly point to former Governor Blagojevich as the poster child for that argument. Quinn and Madigan argued that by giving the governor’s office additional appointments, then that office would be more closely scrutinized by TRS members and annuitants and that would help monitor activity ensuring that board would act appropriately. In addition, they argued that with that much control, the governor’s office would be directly responsible for activity of the TRS board and, therefore more responsible for pension board oversight.

While I have some of the same concerns as others about the legislation, there were far too many good reforms in the bill to vote no. I voted yes and the legislation had widespread support, passing 116- to 1.

There have been several other proposals brought forward regarding reforms that should be considered. HB35 passed the House this week and that legislation creates a transparent website with easy access for the public to obtain information about state expenditures, state employee salaries and state contracts. HB4110 will prohibit gubernatorial appointees from soliciting campaign contributions, HB4111 would save tax payers money by prohibiting state agencies from hiring lobbyists and HB1061 would require any campaign contributions of over ten thousand dollars to be publicly reported within two days. We need these and other tougher laws, but we also need enforcement.

Another big story last week was the passage of the first capital bill for Illinois in over seven years. Folks are referring to the $3.6 billion roads, bridges and mass transit bill as the “mini” capital bill. However, when that amount is coupled with over six-hundred million in federal stimulus money for roads and bridge repair along with hundreds of millions more in federal stimulus funds for water projects, it looks like a good start to return hundreds of idled construction workers back to their jobs. We’ve got to get this economy going and get people back to work and this “mini” capital bill is a good start.

I want to compliment Governor Quinn for working hard with everyone to make this a transparent program. We need to return some measure of trust to working together in state government and this could be step number one, I sure hope so. If this works well, we could see a larger program to build schools along with even more road and bridge money later this spring. Not everything is perfect about the bill and many are concerned about the general revenue fund being used to fund yet more projects while we have such a deficit already. However, this jump-start is much needed and could serve us well.

Sometimes some of the best things that happen are those things that do not happen! Many very controversial pieces of legislation died last week without getting enough support to pass. HB2354 was a very controversial bill that would have ended parental notification of abortion, require taxpayer funded abortion and change the focus of sex education in our schools away from abstinence education. It was not called for a vote after not receiving enough support. I had thousands of pieces of correspondence against that legislation. In addition, HB2514 did not get called for a vote. HB2514 would have legalized marijuana to be grown in one’s home for medical purposes. I did hear from a few constituents in favor of the concept, but hundreds voiced their opposition. In the end, the legislation, in current form, was just too permissive and did not get enough support.

We continued to stop several anti-gun bills last week and I would describe the efforts of those concerned about protecting the Second Amendment as successful so far this spring. As always, we will be watching for any of these anti-gun bills to resurface, but for now, it looks like all that worked paid off.

The general Assembly will not be in session for two weeks as the traditional spring break will take place around the Easter Holiday. I will be back in touch in a couple of weeks with more information and likely a great deal about the budget. I hope you and yours have a great Easter Weekend in which you find strength and joy in your convictions.

During the legislative break, keep in touch, you can call my offices at 217-558-1040 or 618-563-4128 or 217-932-9082. I also track e-mail closely and you can e-mail me at reddyunit1@aol.com Of course, you can send mail to Box 125, Hutsonville, IL 62433 or 222-N Stratton Office Building, Springfield, IL 62706. My website has frequent updates as well and you can access breaking information at www.peopleforeddy.com