Posts filed under 'House of Representatives'
April 9th, 2008
The House has debated two gun-control bills over the past two days, but both times the measures failed to pass.
Today, Rep. Deborah Graham, D-Chicago, presented a bill that would require adult gun owners who have minors under 18 years of age living in their house to keep their gun in a locked box. Rep. Chuck Jefferson, D-Rockford, is a co-sponsor on this bill.
Since September, 21 students in the Chicago Public Schools have been killed. Twenty of those are by gunfire. Last year, 24 students were shot to death. In previous years, the numbers have been between 10-15.
This legislation was one of many bills the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus is carrying this session, prompted by a rash of gun violence among teens in Chicago.
Graham, the bill’s sponsor, moved the bill to postponed consideration before the vote was officially recorded, which sponsors often do when it looks like they haven’t gotten enough votes to pass the bill. By doing this, Graham will be able to call her bill for a vote again later.
According to the bill, if the gun is not locked up or otherwise temporarily unusable, the offense is punishable by a Class C misdemeanor. The punishment, a Class A misdemeanor, becomes harsher if a minor shoots someone with the unlocked gun.
During the debate, Graham called the bill a preventative measure, “much like having a smoke detector in your home.”
Despite Republican speculation during the debate, Graham said the homes of gun owners would not be ransacked to check for compliance.
“The authorities are not going to bombard your home if you have not done this,” she said.
Rep. Dennis Reboletti, R-Elmhurst, said the Chicago gun violence is simply about “gang warfare,” a comment that Graham disputed.
“This does not do anything to save peoples lives,” Reboletti said.
On Tuesday, a bill backed by Rep. Luis Arroyo, D-Chicago, also failed to pass. The bill aimed to limit the number of handguns a person could buy in one month to help curb illegal gun traffiking. Hunters and sportsmen purchasing rifles and shotguns in bulk would be exempt.
Before the vote could be recorded, Arroyo also moved his bill to postponed consideration.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich issued this statement:
“We’ve already lost over 20 Chicago students to shootings this school year. Parents, friends and neighbors are crying out to their elected leaders for help. How many more children have to die before lawmakers pass legislation that will save lives and keep guns out of the wrong hands? … Today’s House vote is a big disappointment to everyone involved in the fight against gun violence. But we won’t give up, we’ll keep lobbying and pushing lawmakers to take action. The young lives at stake are too important to forget.”
March 13th, 2008
The House Republicans donned a new accessory today — bright red foam fingers that read, “Dems #1 Tax and Spend.”
Foam fingers are normally reserved for baseball games. But Republicans began Thursday’s House session cheering — or rather jeering — the Democrats on the Cook County Board for increasing taxes again and giving Chicago the dubious honor of having the highest sales tax of any U.S. city.
On March 1, the board raised the county sales tax. Here’s the background:
Among the things Chicago wants to be known for, having the highest total sales taxes of any major city in the nation is probably not one of them.
But that’s what it’s getting after the Cook County Board voted early Saturday to double the county sales tax to 1.75 percent, raising the city’s cumulative rate to 10.25 percent. That compares with rates in New York and Los Angeles that are below 8.5 percent. The next highest rate in the country is in Memphis at 9.25 percent.
The approved increase ends a five-month stalemate over a $3 billion budget in Cook County — but it upset many business leaders.
Just one problem: Their chiding might be a bit misplaced because the county board and the House
Democrats are two separate levels of government, as Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, pointed out.
But as we also know, all politics is connected, especially in Chicago.
Update 1
The Daily Herald wrote a story today about the incident, which was centered around a GOP proposal to createa four-day, tax-free holiday to boost the economy.
The downstate Republican joined others in proposing a “sales tax holiday,” which would coincide with federal economic-stimulus rebates of $600 per person and $300 per child to be handed out to families over Memorial Day weekend. For four days, Illinois consumers could spend that money on items $600 or less without paying a penny in sales taxes.
State Rep. Dave Winters, a Rockford-area Republican, said the consumers would see $40 million in tax relief on estimated sales that weekend alone. Winters also said 15 other states have used sales tax holidays.
If some sort of remedy isn’t found, Republican lawmakers warned some taxpayers would go out of state to buy their goods. Or just might move out altogether.
Photos courtesy of House Republican staff
February 13th, 2008
The feud between Gov. Rod Blagojevich and House Speaker Michael Madigan all but consumed state government last year, dragging out consideration of major initiatives from the state budget to a bailout for mass transit systems.
If action on Wednesday was any indication, when Madigan opened a new front in the political war, posturing and gridlock will continue well into this year too.
Madigan on Wednesday spread word to House committee chairs that certain bills will not advance unless they include a provision effectively pre-empting the governor’s authority to craft rules around those bills once they become law.
It was a direct assault on the governor, who in November used an “emergency” rule to sidestep the Legislature and unilaterally implement a phase of his plan for universal health care. The governor first tried to maneuver his plan through the Legislature — the conventional route for major spending initiatives — but lawmakers rejected it.
A special committee of lawmakers, who under state law have the power to review the governor’s administrative rules, rejected that “emergency” rule. The governor responded that he believed the committee’s role is merely advisory and that it did not have the power to reject his rule.
A suburban attorney filed a lawsuit challenging the governor’s decision to ignore the committee’s decision, and a court is reviewing the matter. The legal controversy is not new. Former GOP Gov. Jim Thompson argued in 1980 that the committee’s power to reject a governor’s rules is unconstitutional.
Madigan’s new strategy apparently is intended to kill the governor’s rule-making authority altogether, or at least when it comes to certain bills, by requiring such bills to cover all the details that the governor might otherwise cover in the course of an administrative rule.
A rule sought by the governor cannot conflict with the law it is linked to. If the Legislature addresses every conceivable detail in the actual bill, there would be nothing left for the governor to address with a rule.
The governor’s rule-making authority would be effectively neutralized.
Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said all “appropriate” bills must now include an amendment requiring lawmakers to include details that have been traditionally left for the purview of the governor’s rules.
“Our interest is to help (the administration) implement their policies, and so bills that would require rules, we will amend them so that’s prohibited,” he told me. “It will spell everything out in the legislation.”
He added, “The administration wishes those to all be in the law, and that’s what these amendments will require the agencies to do.”
But will Madigan succeed in implementing his new strategy, thereby prompting wholesale change in how Illinois laws are made, or will he succeed only in aggravating the governor?
It’s not clear. Senate President Emil Jones Jr., a Chicago Democrat like Blagojevich and Madigan, sided with the governor during last year’s protracted battle of wills. If Jones continues to watch Blagojevich’s back this year, it’s unlikely the Senate will sign off on bills stuffed with all the additional language Madigan intends to stuff them with.
If Jones balks at Madigan’s strategy and the speaker refuses to budge, there will be more gridlock at the Capitol.
The development came the same day lawmakers returned to Springfield after a month-long break. Committee hearings were thrown into flux as legislators tried to figure out what this meant to bills already drafted and ready for a vote.
In Illinois, laws are built on three levels. The state Constitution is the foundation and basic framework. Statutes approved by the Legislature speak to the details left out of the Constitution. And rules implemented by the governor speak to the details left out of statutes. Through rules, the governor’s agencies implement law.
Madigan’s strategy would effectively morph certain bills to cover the nuance typically covered in rules. This, in effect, would make bills much, much longer. And, amid gridlock on top of gridlock, the lawmaking process would become even more convoluted.
January 17th, 2008
He danced, she danced, they all danced — but at the end of the day, Gov. Rod Blagojevich got his way.
House Democrats lined up to blast the governor for his personality and his policy, but in the end, the mass transit bill narrowly passed 61-47.
Now the bill moves to the Senate. Republicans are currently meeting separately to discuss strategy before the vote and are expected to return shortly.
The bill would send significant money to the Chicago mass transit system. The bill also provides additional money for downstate systems, such as Rockford, which is scheduled to receive $1.2 million.
The newest addition to the bill was the governor’s proposal to let senior citizens ride mass transit free of charge.
The House debated Blagojevich’s amendatory veto for about an hour and a half today.
Rep. Robert Molaro, D-Chicago, said today’s debate about the governor’s political games was the “Illinois Shuffle.” The reference reminded me of a new popular dance tune called the “Cupid Shuffle,” in which everyone dances to the same tune.
Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago, decried Illinois’ amendatory veto, saying there is a reason only seven states give their governors amendatory veto powers.
“We were a signature away last week,” Fritchey said. “Leadership is not about press conferences. … It’s not about playing ‘Gotcha,’ with the public… ‘gotcha with the media.”
Fritchey, like most of his Democratic colleagues, ended his speech by saying he did not want to hold up the bill and be the one responsible for the massive transit cuts that would occur Sunday in Chicago.
House Republican leader, Rep. Tom Cross, R-Oswego, said although the Democrats blasted the governor now, they are the ones to blame for this mess.
“What I find a little fascinating about today, many on teh Deomcratic side of the aisle want to pick on teh governor,” Cross said. “It’s your party, it’s your leadership … You run everything in this state. You love to tell us that.”
In the end, most of the Democrats did dance to the same tune, and a few Republicans joined in. Of the Rockford delegation, Rep. Chuck Jefferson was the only member to vote for the bill. Reps. Dave Winters, Jim Sacia and Ron Wait all opposed the bill.
UPDATE 1
The Senate followed the House, voting 32-19 in favor of the governor’s change to the mass transit bill. The Senate, however, declined to consider the “trailer” bill that would narrow the class of seniors eligible for free rides.
It’s now up to the governor to certify that the Legislature’s “acceptance” of his changes “conforms to his specific recommendations.”
January 17th, 2008
Well that was short, sweet — but not to the point.
The House convened shortly after 11 a.m. today, but they didn’t stay in their seats for long. The House Democrats quickly shuffled out of the room to “caucus” — or in laymen’s terms, to gather behind closed doors to discuss party strategy for the mass transit vote.
It’s hard to say how long they will be gone — one person said it could be up to two or three hours. When theydo reconvene, you can listen to the House discussion live right here.
And so we wait.
UPDATE 1
House debate is now underway. Expect a vote by 2 or 3 .m.
The Senate has not yet convened. Like Blago, they tend to run late.
UPDATE 2
The House just voted 61-47 to accept the governor’s amendment. The Senate must now vote.
