"The House will be in order. Members will please be in their chairs. We will be led… we will be led in prayer today by Lee Crawford, the Pastor… who is the Pastor the Cathedral of Praise Christian Center in Springfield. Members and guests are asked to refrain from starting their laptops, they're asked to turn off all their cellphones, and rise for the invocation and for the Pledge of Allegiance. Pastor Crawford."
"Let us pray. Most gracious, sovereign, and holy God, God of all power, God of all might, God of all wisdom and justice, through You all authority is rightly administered, laws are in enacted, and judgement is decreed. God, assist us today with Your spirit of counsel and fortitude. May Your blessing be upon this august Assembly, the Speaker of this House, all of its Leaders, all of its Members, all of their families. God, may they always seek the ways of righteousness, the ways of justice, the ways of being merciful, and the ways of being compassionate. I pray that they be enabled with Your powerful protection and with infinite wisdom that they may lead Your people with great strength, great honesty, and in great integrity. This we ask in Your precious Son's name, Amen."
"We will be led in the Pledge by Representative David Harris." Harris, D. - et al: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." 10000147.docx 1 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Roll Call for Attendance. Excused absences, Representative Feigenholtz."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. There are no excused absences on the Democratic side today."
Speaker Currie: "Representative Keith Wheeler for excused absences on your side of the aisle." Wheeler, K: "Thank you, Madam Speaker. Please excuse Representative Batinick, Brady, Frese, Phillips, Long, Spain, Unes, Barbara Wheeler, Cavaletto, and Breen".
"The record will so reflect. Anybody else still needs to be recorded? Clerk, please call… take the record. 103 have answered the quorum call. We do have a quorum and we're ready for business. The Chair has two announcements, pay close attention. Two announcements. First, we are not going to be dealing with any of the measures that came to this chamber from the Senate yesterday. That we will do when we return here after Thanksgiving. So no Senate… no Senate action taken up in the House today. Second, as you'll have noticed, the weather is pretty crummy. So it's our hope that we can finish the Session in quick order so that people can get on the road and get safely home. Committee Reports. Rules Report."
Clerk Bolin: "Committee Reports. Representative Currie, Chairperson from the Committee on Rules reports the following committee action taken on November 15, 2018: recommends be adopted referred to the floor is Floor Amendment #5 to Senate Bill 2610; approved for consideration referred to Order of Concurrence is House Bill 156; and acceptance Motion… 10000147.docx 2 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 recommend for adoption… acceptance Veto Motion recommended for adoption House Bill 5177."
"On page 3 of the Calendar is House Bill 5971, Representative Zalewski. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"House Bill 5971, a Bill for an Act concerning government. The Bill was read for a second time previously. No Committee Amendments. No Floor Amendments. No Motions are filed."
"Third Reading. Clerk, please read the Bill on Third."
"House Bill 5971, a Bill for an Act concerning government. Third Reading of this House Bill."
"Representative Zalewski."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd move for the passage of the House Bill 5971. It designates April each year of Arab American Heritage Month as observed throughout the State of Illinois. I… my district has a large Arab population in Bridgeview, Burbank, and Justice. I know this is an issue important to the Speaker as well. It's important to commemorate April and commemorate the contributions of these citizens to the United States and Illinois. So I ask for everyone's 'aye' vote and urge passage of House Bill 5971."
"Representative Zalewski moves for passage of House Bill 5971. And on that is there any discussion? Representative Thapedi."
"Thank you, Madam Chair. And will the Sponsor yielded?"
"The Sponsor will yield." 10000147.docx 3 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Mike, thank you for bringing this. As you know, our districts abut each other and I have a significant Arab population as well. Please add me as a Sponsor to the Bill."
"Of course."
"Thank you."
"Further discussion? Representative McDermed."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. Mike, this is a great Bill. I have two large Muslim prayer centers in my district. So I want to go on record as saying this is a great thing. I'd also like to see us urge the Governor to get the Muslim Advisory Council going. Several of us have members that we appointed to that group and it needs to get going because there's a lot important work to do. I would urge us to do both those things. Thank you."
"No further discussion. Representative Zalewski moves for passage of House Bill 5971. All in favor of the Bill vote 'yes'; all opposed vote 'no'. Voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Clerk, please take the record. On this Motion, there are 99 voting 'yes', 0 'no', 0 voting 'present'. And this measure, having achieved the appropriate Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. The Chair recognizes Representative Andersson on a Motion to reconsider the vote… on page 10 of the Calendar House Bill… House Bill 4265, Representative Andersson."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. If the Body will recall back in May of this year, Representative Mary Flowers brought a Bill with regard to how we serve defendants who have failed to pay their debts to the court system. It’s a very important 10000147.docx 4 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 Bill, but it had significant flaw with it in that people were required… or the state was going to be required to basically serve individuals twice for these failures to pay. Wasn’t going to work. So it was soundly defeated. I think it garnered maybe 35 votes. I filed the Motion to reconsider to preserve it since it couldn’t go into Postponed Consideration. I worked with Representative Flowers on the Bill and now the amended version of this Bill reflects now that if someone… a defendant fails to pay what they owe to the court system, there is a required failure-to-pay notice that goes out. And then, only then if they fail to do that, could a warrant be issued. That is actually best practice right now in virtually in all of our counties but it's not codified. Representative Flowers' Bill as now written will do that, will codify that best practice. As a result you can see my name on the board as a chief cosponsor. And once we get done with the Motion to reconsider I would then, of course, urge an 'aye' vote. So, Madam Speaker, I move to reconsider the Motion on House Bill 4265."
"The Representative has made the Motion to reconsider the vote on House Bill 4265. All in favor of the Motion vote 'yes'; opposed vote 'no'. Voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Clerk, please take the record. On this measure, there are 72 voting… 73 voting 'aye', 21 voting 'no'. And the Motion is successful. Representative Andersson, do you want to move the Bill back to Second Reading? Representative Andersson?" 10000147.docx 5 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Yes, move it back to Second, because we do need the Amendment."
"All right. The Bill will back on the Order of Second Reading."
"Thank you."
"Moving to page 2 of the Calendar, we are on… House Bills-Second Reading. And we start with House Bill 130, Representative Phelps Finnie. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"House Bill 130, a Bill for an Act concerning government. The Bill was read for a second time previously. No Committee Amendments. Floor Amendment #1 is offered by Representative Phelps Finnie."
"Representative Finnie on Amendment 1."
"Thank you, Madam Chair. House Bill 130 is just going to allow the Hardin County Work Camp transfer from state control to our county control for the purposes of our county jail."
"Representative Finnie moved for the adoption of Amendment 1 to House Bill 130. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say 'aye'; opposed 'no'. The 'ayes' have it. The Motion's adopted. And are there any further Amendments or Motions, Mr. Clerk?"
"No further Amendments. No Motions filed."
"Third Reading. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"House Bill 130, a Bill for an Act concerning government. Third Reading of this House Bill."
"Representative Finnie."
"Again, this will just transfer control of the Hardin County Work Camp, which was shut down a couple years ago, 10000147.docx 6 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 from state to local control allowing our county to use it as their jail. I'm asking for an 'aye' vote."
"Representative Finnie moves for passage of House Bill 130. And on that, is there any discussion? Representative Bryant."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"The Sponsor will yield."
"Thank you. To the Bill. Members, this is a good Bill. We're taking something that has been shuttered and moving it now to something that is useable for a local area. It would provide much needed space for that county's incarcerated population, but it will also provide a lot of jobs for the area. And I applaud Representative Finnie for bringing this forward. I recommend an 'aye' vote."
"Further discussion? Seeing none, on the Motion to adopt House Bill 130. All in favor in vote 'aye'; opposed 'no'… I'm sorry. And she moves for adoption of the Bill. All in favor vote 'aye'; opposed vote 'no'. Voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Clerk, please take the record. On this Motion there are 98 voting 'yes', 19 voting 'no'. And this Bill, having achieved a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. House Bill 1167. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"House Bill 1167, a Bill for an Act concerning State government. The Bill was read for a second time previously. No Committee Amendments. Floor Amendment #1 is offered by Representative Mah."
"Representative Mah on Amendment 1." 10000147.docx 7 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"HB1167 simply extends the deadline for the Language Access Task Force to January 2020."
Speaker Currie: "You've heard the Amendment. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of the Amendment say 'aye'; opposed 'no'. The 'ayes' have it. The Amendment is adopted. Any further Amendments or Motions?"
"No further Amendments. No Motions are filed."
"Third Reading. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"House Bill 1167, a Bill for an Act concerning State government. Third Reading of this House Bill."
"Representative Mah."
"The Bill simply extends the deadline. And I ask for your 'yes' vote."
"Seeing no discussion, all in favor please vote 'aye', opposed 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Clerk, please take the record. On this measure, there are 98 voting 'yes', 18 voting 'no'. And this Bill, having achieved the required Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Clerk, please read House Bill 1168."
"House Bill 1168, a Bill for an Act concerning State government. The Bill was read for a second time previously. No Committee Amendments. Floor Amendment #1 is offered by Representative Andrade."
"Representative Andrade on Amendment 1."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. House Bill 1168 extends the sunset date on the Opening Standards Act from the current date of repeal from January 21, 2019 to January 21, 2021. I ask for a favorable vote." 10000147.docx 8 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Representative Andrade moves that we adopt Amendment 1. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor say 'aye'; opposed 'no'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. Are there any further Amendments or Motions?"
"No further Amendments. No Motions are filed."
"Third Reading. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"House Bill 1168, a Bill for an Act concerning State government. Third Reading of this House Bill."
"Representative Andrade."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. I request a favorable 'aye' vote."
"Representative Andrade moves passage of House Bill 1168. All in favor vote 'aye'; opposed 'no'. Voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Clerk, please take the record. On this Motion, there are 99 voting 'yes', 0 voting 'no', 0 voting present. And this Bill, having achieved the required Constitutional Majority is hereby declared passed. Moving on. Clerk, please read House Bill 1193. Representative Bristow."
"House Bill 1193, a Bill for an Act concerning local government. The Bill was read for a second time previously. No Committee Amendments. Floor Amendment #1 is offered by Representative Bristow."
"Representative Bristow on Amendment 1."
"This Amendment is a gut and replace. It extends the TIF extension for the Village of Hartford, the Village of Manlius, the City of Hoopeston, the Village of North Utica, the City of LaSalle, and the City of Country Club Hills." 10000147.docx 9 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"On the Motion to adopt the Amendment, seeing no discussion, all in favor of the Amendment say 'aye'; all opposed 'no'. The 'ayes' have it. And the Amendment is adopted. Mr. Clerk, further Amendments or Motions?"
"No further Amendments. No Motions are filed."
"Third Reading. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"House Bill 1193, a Bill for an Act concerning local government. Third Reading of this House Bill."
"Representative Bristow."
"I ask for an 'aye' vote on these TIF extensions for the Village of Hartford, the Village of Manlius, the City of Hoopeston, the Village of North Utica, the City of LaSalle, and the City of Country Club Hills."
"Representative… for discussion Representative Keith Wheeler." Wheeler, K.: "Thank you, Madam Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"She will." Wheeler, K.: "Representative, just walk me through here if you would. The background these TIFs… have all the local government… have all the local governments signed on to these extensions?"
"They have. And we have the letters." Wheeler, K.: "The Joint Review Board process has all been completed then as well? Did we get the letters, I assume?"
"Yes." Wheeler, K.: "Okay. Ladies and Gentlemen, not everybody here is in favor of the TIFs, but I'm looking through the list of the proponents. It looks like all the local governments are on board here. Vote your conscience. Thank you." 10000147.docx 10 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
Speaker Currie: "Further discussion? Representative David Harris." Harris, D.: "Thank you, Madam Chair. Quick question of the Sponsor."
"She will answer your question."
"Madam Chair, I need to clarify the Village of North Utica, the City of LaSalle, and the City of Country Club Hills are not in this first Amendment. They will be in a separate Amendment. We do have the paperwork for it. What's the question?" Harris, D.: "Madam Speaker…"
"Representative Harris, did you get an answer to your question?" Harris, D.: "Madam Chair, if I still have the floor?"
"Yes, you have the floor." Harris, D.: "Representative, I know that we had… you just mention we have two Amendments in committee. Specifically, what does this Bill do at this time?"
"This Bill at this time includes the Village of Hartford, the Village of Manlius, and the City of Hoopeston." Harris, D.: "Okay. And we were waiting when we passed… so there's going to be a Floor Amendment coming as well, is there not?"
"That's correct. Oh no, there's not. I'm sorry. It'll be a different Bill I understand." Harris, D.: "So there's a Floor Amendment coming on a different Bill?"
"At this time, that’s the plan." Harris, D.: "I'm sorry, I didn’t hear you?" 10000147.docx 11 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"At this time, that is the plan, a separate Bill. We discussed a second Amendment but that has not been filed. So it will be…" Harris, D.: "Okay. So I understand what you're doing, what we did in committee. So this is just the one Amendment, all the letters are in. If the other one comes forward that will be a direct Floor Amendment and the letters will have to be in on that one as well, correct?"
"Correct." Harris, D.: "Okay. Thank you very much. Ladies and Gentlemen, as was said earlier this is strictly a TIF Bill. Depending on how you feel on TIFs, of course, vote as you see fit, but I'm standing in support of the Bill. Thank you."
"Further discussion? Representative Ives."
"Thank you, Madam Chair. To the Bill. I think it's important that we talk about this in a more direct way. Obviously, when you hide your property wealth in TIF districts as Chicago does a ton of and other people around the state, what you're doing is skewing the school funding formula to the advantage of your district. And apparently there was supposed to be a task force on TIFs. There was supposed to be Property Tax Task Force that also brought this up, and yet nothing has been done. The School Funding Bill passed well over a year ago and we have not addressed the inconsistency with TIF districts as it relates to the school funding formula. I actually advocate a 'no' vote on any TIF extension until we deal with this inside the school funding formula issue as well. All your doing is you're stealing from the rest of the state by hiding property wealth in a TIF. Vote 'no'." 10000147.docx 12 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Further discussion? Representative Bennett."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. Good morning. What I'd like to do is rise in support of this Amendment. This is a bipartisan effort. There are two TIF requests in there from Hoopeston, Illinois which is from my district. And also Representative Swanson, also has at least one in there. So again, this is bipartisan. And I do rise in support. Thank you."
"Representative Bristow moves adoption of House Bill 1193. All in favor of vote 'aye'; opposed 'no'. Voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Clerk, please take the record. On this measure there are 89 voting 'yes', 7 voting 'no', 1 voting 'present'. And this Bill, having achieved the appropriate Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. House Bill 1594, Representative Ford. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"House Bill 1594, a Bill for an Act concerning employment. The Bill was read for a second time previously. No Committee Amendments. Floor Amendment #1 is offered by Representative Ford."
"Representative Ford."
"Yes. I would like to adopt Floor Amendment #1 to House Bill 1594. All it does is extend the sunset date of the Commission on Youth Adult Employment from January 1, 2019 to January 1, 2022."
"Representative Ford moves for the adoption of Amendment 1. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all in 10000147.docx 13 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 favor say 'aye'; opposed 'no'. The 'ayes' have it. The Motion's adopted. Further Motions or Amendments?"
"No further Amendments. No Motions are filed."
"Third Reading. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"House Bill 1594, a Bill for an Act concerning employment. Third Reading of this House Bill."
"Representative Ford."
"Thank you, Madam Chair… Currie. We've heard the Amendment's purpose, I move for the passage of House Bill 1594 as amended."
"Representative Ford moves adoption of House Bill 1594. And on that… on that question, Representative Keith Wheeler." Wheeler, K.: "Thank you, Madam Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"The Sponsor will yield." Wheeler, K.: "Thank you. Representative, I have one just quick question here. I know I voted for this in committee. I want to question about the report given annually, have you seen any of the reports to date? In our analysis here it says a report shall be submitted annually to the General Assembly containing recommendations. I'd like to see that report. If you have seen it, could you share it with me please?"
"You know what, Representative, the committee… the task force never met. So we're working to get it all together at this time." Wheeler, K.: "Okay. Well I look forward to that if you wouldn’t mind sharing that with me when the time is right."
"Certainly will. Thank you so much." Wheeler, K.: "Appreciate it. Thank you." 10000147.docx 14 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Further discussion? Seeing none, Representative Ford has moved the adoption of House Bill 1594. All in favor please vote 'aye'; opposed vote 'no'. And the voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Clerk, please take the record. On this measure, there are 96 voting 'aye', 4 voting 'no', 0 voting 'present'. And this Bill, having received the appropriate Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. On page 3 of the Calendar, Senate Bills-Second Reading. Let us go to Senate Bill 309, Representative Feigenholtz. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 309, a Bill for an Act concerning regulation. The Bill was read for a second time previously. No Committee Amendments. Floor Amendment #1 is offered by Representative Feigenholtz."
"Representative Feigenholtz."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. This Amendment is a clarification of something that has been in effect for 10 years and a little confusion in the original Bill we passed last year about personnel. I'd appreciate support."
"Representative Feigenholtz moves adoption of Amendment 1. And on that Motion, Representative Keith Wheeler." Wheeler, K.: "Thank you, Madam Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"He will." Wheeler, K.: "Representative, just to clarify, this is an agreed Amendment. Is that correct?"
"It is." Wheeler, K.: "Thank you." 10000147.docx 15 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of the Amendment say 'aye'; opposed 'no'. The 'ayes' have it. The Amendment is adopted. Are there any further Amendments or Motions?"
"No further Amendments. No Motions are filed."
"Third Reading. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 309, a Bill for an Act concerning regulation. Third Reading of this Senate Bill."
"Representative Feigenholtz."
"Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, this is a clarification of the APN Bill we passed last year that so many Members in this chamber worked on and were cosponsors of. I'd appreciate an 'aye' vote."
"Seeing no discussion, all in favor of the Bill vote 'aye'; opposed 'no'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Clerk, please take the record. On this measure, there are 98 voting 'yes', 1 voting 'no'. And this measure, having received the appropriate Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared pass. Clerk, Rules Report please."
Clerk Bolin: "Committee Reports. Representative Currie, Chairperson from the Committee on Rules reports the following committee action taken on November 15, 2018: recommends be adopted referred to the floor is Floor Amendment #1 for House Bill 4265."
"Representative Keith Wheeler, for what reason do you rise?" 10000147.docx 16 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 Wheeler, K.: "Thank you, Madam Speaker. Please let the record reflect that Representative Sheri Jesiel, our good friend, is excused for the rest of today."
"Again, back on page 3 of the Calendar, Senate Bills-Second Reading. Senate Bill 752, Representative Lang. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 752, a Bill for an Act concerning government. The Bill was read for a second time previously. Amendment #2 was adopted in committee. No Floor Amendments. No Motions are filed."
"Third Reading. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 752, a Bill for an Act concerning government. Third Reading of this Senate Bill."
"Representative Lang."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is an agreed Bill that is a trailer Bill to the Mental Health Parity Bill we passed. It simply clarifies who's responsible for what relative to the Department of Insurance and CMS. And there's a good division of labor here, and it's agreed."
"Representative Lang moves passage of the Bill. On that question, Representative Davidsmeyer."
"Question of the Sponsor. Is this the same as the original Bill? I notice my name's up there."
"Representative Lang, you want to answer his question?"
"It’s a gut and replace?"
"This is… this is a gut and replace. So if you want to take your name off, you can, but I assure you it’s an agreed Bill with the state agencies involved." 10000147.docx 17 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Okay. I just wanted to check and see what was moving forward. Thank you."
"Seeing no further discussion, all in favor of the Motion vote 'aye'; opposed 'no'. Voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Clerk, take the record. On this measure, there are 99 voting 'yes', 1 voting 'no'. And this measure, having achieved the appropriate Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Moving to page 4 of the Calendar, once again, on Second Reading. Senate Bill 3051, Representative Hoffman. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 3051, a Bill for an Act concerning regulation. The Bill was read for a second time previously. Amendment #2 was adopted in committee. No Floor Amendments. No Motions are filed."
"Third Reading. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"Senate Bill 3051, a Bill for an Act concerning regulation. Third Reading of this Senate Bill."
"Representative Hoffman."
"Yes. Thank you, Madam Speaker. This simply changes the effective date of the Bill that allowed for and extended the ability of private water companies to purchase public water companies. Unfortunately, the Governor didn’t sign the Bill until August 10, 2018 and the previous Act had expired on June 1, 2018. This would just simply extend the sunset date to June 1, 2028."
"Representative Hoffman moves passage of Senate Bill 3051. And on that question, Representative Andersson." 10000147.docx 18 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. I'll speak to the Bill. I would remind the Membership that this Bill does a little bit more than what was just stated. This is a corrective Bill to House Bill 4508. You may want to look at your record on House Bill 4508 and whether you voted in favor or against. The reason is it's not simply the extension of a sunset, it’s a massive expansion of the jurisdiction of these private water authorities. They used to be limited to communities of under 7500 people, now they are unlimited. The cap was entirely lifted. I would note that CUB is against this Bill, and so is the Sierra Club, amongst others. I would have concerns about turning over a natural resource like our water systems throughout our state in an unlimited and unregulated… well it's not unregulated but in rather an unlimited way. I would just caution to look in your vote on House Bill 4508. Thank you."
"Further discussion? Representative Thapedi."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"He will."
"Representative Hoffman, we talked about this ad nauseam in committee yesterday. Would you please respond to the statements from the previous speaker, 'cause it was my understanding that there were nothing substantive in this Bill that it was simply matter of making a correction with respect to the timing element. Is that accurate?"
"Yes. And I respect the previous speaker immensely, but he's simply wrong. All this does is it changes the effective date and makes sure that it's extended… the sunset is extended to June 1, 2028. That's all this does." 10000147.docx 19 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Nothing subsitive whatsoever?"
"No."
"Thank you."
Speaker Currie: "Further discussion? Representative Keith Wheeler." Wheeler, K.: "Thank you, Madam Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"He will." Wheeler, K.: "Jay, I just want to make sure that I understand right. I couldn’t hear all of Andre's questions there. So there is no other change in substance to this Bill other than the extension of the date. Is that accurate?"
"That’s all this Bill does." Wheeler, K.: "I'm sorry, say that again please?"
"That’s all this Bill does." Wheeler, K.: "So… it doesn't change anything else? The attention of the Gentleman telling me from the previous vote we had before as well as the Governor's intention to sign it, isn't changed either then."
"No, all this does… what happened is we passed the Bill in the middle of May, it went to the Governor's desk and he signed it in August. And unfortunately, the sunset was in June of 2018. He signed it in August of 2018. And in the original Bill, we extended the sunset but there was an issue with regard to the fact that he had actually signed it after the sunset. So this just cleans that up." Wheeler, K.: "So clearly we just have a difference of opinions of… Representative Andersson about how this is approached, but I was with you in the committee yesterday and you said it 10000147.docx 20 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 was clearly just an extension of what we had before. That's accurate?"
"Yes." Wheeler, K.: "Thank you."
"Further discussion? Representative Guzzardi."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield for a couple of questions?"
"The Sponsor will yield."
"Thank you. Representative Hoffman, when we originally looked at this Bill my impression was that… I mean the previous version of this Bill that passed. My impression was that AFSCME had not filed a position on the Bill. Do you know if they have position on your measure now?"
"They told me yesterday that they were opposed but couldn’t tell me why. They said it's because of philosophical reasons, I think. I'm not exactly sure." Guzzardi: "I guess I wouldn’t intend to speak for them, but I can imagine that…" Hoffman: "Let me just say this. So as you know I probably have supported them a hundred percent of the time since I've been here in General Assembly. It would’ve been really nice if they would have came to me and told me that they had an issue, but they didn’t."
"No, I don’t doubt that you have a strong track record with them, Representative. I just wonder if the fact that this Bill anticipates the possibility of privatizing municipal functions, and therefore costing them members might be the reason for their concern." 10000147.docx 21 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Well as a general rule, I've never been for privatization of functions. The problem here is you'll have a municipal water company who can't make it, and they may not be able to comply EPA standards, and so they have no other alternative but to look at some other alternative. This just simply allows that. The decisions going to be made by the local municipality. And it's going to be made by the city government as to whether or not they have to sell the assets in order to keep water flowing to their residents."
"Is there a referendum process for those local municipalities to anticipate the privatization of their water systems?"
"In the underlying Bill there was not. And all this does is change the sunset."
"Right. Right. To the Bill quickly…"
"Can I say this about the referendum? It was brought up to me yesterday. I can support that, eventually, but that's not what this does. All this does is it changes the sunset of the Act."
"Right. Thank you, Representative. To the Bill."
"To the Bill."
"I share some of my colleague's deep concerns about this measure. I think we need to be extremely cautious when we're allowing the privatization of public services without robust public oversight. Particularly with a service as vital and essential to our community survival as the provision of clean potable drinking water. We've seen across the state and around the country the tremendously negative effects of privatizing municipal water systems. And I think that while 10000147.docx 22 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 this Bill maybe described as a technical change and a change of effective dates, I think anything we can do to pump the brakes on the process of privatizing municipal water systems is important. And if that means delaying this measure until next year when we can take closer look at this question, I think it’s an important thing to do. And I urge 'no' vote. Thank you."
"Further discussion? Representative Connor."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"He will."
"Representative, the underlying Bill, which the… this piece of legislation is going to extend the sunset on, did that contain a household limit on how many households that legislation applied to in terms of the size of the water systems that could be acquired by the private company?"
"I apologize, I don’t know. Like I said this… we passed the Bill in May. The sunset was messed up because the Governor signed it after the sunset and that’s all this… I apologize, I don’t know the answer."
"Thank you, Representative. To the Bill. The original legislation had a 700-, I believe, household limit in it. This particular piece of legislation removed that limit and allowed any size systems to be acquired. And I'm going to represent… I'm going to echo Representative Guzzardi's concerns that we are now allowing very large municipal water systems to be acquired by private companies. And once those companies get ahold of those systems, the ratepayers typically pay double their rates within about 3 to 4 years. 10000147.docx 23 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 This is simply bad policy. And I'd urge a 'no' vote. Thank you."
"Further discussion? Representative McDermed."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. To the Bill."
"To the Bill."
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this Bill was sold to us last spring as a way to help municipalities. It may help municipalities, but the other thing that every single person in this room needs to realize is that when we permit municipalities to sell their water systems at top dollar, that means the buyer, in other words private water company, can charge the consumers top dollar based on the purchase price. So what we're really doing when we approve this Bill is we're saying, municipalities, good for you, sell for as much as you can get. Water companies… private water companies, buy for way more than it's valued so you can charge the consumers an out-of-the-ballpark rate for what they desperately need, which is water and sewer systems. So this is anti-consumer Bill, this is anti-your-constituent Bill. Every single Member of this Body needs to vote 'no' on this Bill, unless you're about liberating your voters from their money. Vote 'no'. Vote 'no' big."
"Further discussion? Representative Ives."
"Madam Speaker, I yield my time to Representative Andersson."
"Representative Andersson, your name was used in debate, so you actually have time if you wish to take advantage of it." 10000147.docx 24 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Either way, however I get to talk, that's all I'm looking for."
"Okay. Representative Andersson."
"Thank you, Madam Chair. So I wanted to clarify what I said in the beginning. Is that the Sponsor of the Bill is correct. The only thing this Bill does is correct a defect in how House Bill 4508 was passed, it didn’t come in to effect. But the problem is without doing this, House Bill 4508 never comes in to effect. I voted against 4508 because of the substance of what we are now discussing, which is the impact to the entire state as to how water utilities are run or sold. Imagine, if you will, a situation where you've got a community that is struggling, say for example, with their pension debt, and they're running out of ways to figure that out. Well, now since there's no cap on the size of the community, they can, as the Representative spoke I believe before me with the lovely red hair, indicated they can sell that for top dollar which will then mean that the utility prices will in all likelihood go up. And all that the city will result in is a stopgap for their pension by one example. As I said, fundamentally do we want private industry running our water supplies throughout the state? It's also akin, if you will, to the City of Chicago awhile back selling off all its parking meters. Not different, not a wise move. Please vote 'no'. Thank you, Madam Speaker."
"Further discussion? Representative Carroll."
"To the Bill. I actually am dealing with this directly. One of my towns, Mount Prospect, they're dealing with American Water. And they did not properly maintain sewer lines, there's 10000147.docx 25 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 flooding on a regular basis, it happens all the time. They jack up these people's rates. We did a townhall about it. And when you allow these private companies to run public utilities, that’s the risk that you take. And there's no recourse that we have to stop this from happening. So I'm urging everyone to please vote 'no' on this Bill because this is very dangerous precedent we're setting when we allow public utilities to be run by private companies. Thank you."
Speaker Currie: "And for the last word on this debate, Representative Welter."
"Madam Speaker, to the Bill. When the underlying Bill originally came to us, I voted 'yes' on it. Unfortunately, that was a bad vote. And through the summer, through editorials, and through discussion that were had, I dug deeper into this Bill and I hope that many of you have as well. In my district I have some of these systems as well. I'm not speaking to them running poorly. I think they run well in my area, but it's what it's going do to the ratepayers in the future. The future systems that they acquire. Folks, we have an opportunity now to take advantage of an error that happened to make legislation better. We can come back in January, minimum a voter referendum. We do that for the electrical aggregates, we should do it here as well. Let's bring some transparency to this process and vote 'no' today. Bipartisanly we have said that from both sides right now, we both have concerns. Don’t move on this today. Vote 'no'."
"To close, Representative Hoffman."
"I'm going to remove the Bill from the record." 10000147.docx 26 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"The Gentleman asked to take the Bill from the record. The Bill will be removed from the record. On page 5 of the Calendar, Senate Bill 2610. Representative Will Davis has asked that this Bill would be returned to Second Reading for purposes of an Amendment. Clerk, is the Amendment filed?"
"Senate Bill 2610, a Bill for an Act concerning State government. The Bill was read for a second time previously. No Committee Amendments. Floor Amendments 2, 3, and 4 have been adopted. Floor Amendment #5, offered by Representative Will Davis, has been approved for consideration."
"Representative Davis on Amendment #5."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. Excuse me. Amendment #5 is technical in nature. Essentially exempts any taxing body that receives these types of motor fuel taxes dollars if they already have a DEP or Minority Participation Program in place. I'll be more than happy to answer any questions. I move for the adoption of the Amendment. And would like to answer any questions."
"On that the Amendment, is there any discussion? Representative Lang."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. Due to a potential conflict, I'll be voting 'present' on this Bill."
"No further discussion, all in favor of the Amendment please vote… say 'aye'; opposed ‘no’. The 'ayes' have it. The Amendment is adopted. Further Amendments, Clerk?"
"No further Amendments. No Motions are filed."
"Third Reading. Please read the Bill." 10000147.docx 27 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Senate Bill 2610, a Bill for an Act concerning State government. Third Reading of this Senate Bill."
Speaker Currie: "And on this Motion… Any discussion? Representative Keith Wheeler." Wheeler, K.: "Thank you, Madam Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"The Sponsor will yield." Wheeler, K.: "Will, how are you today?
"Doing well." Wheeler, K.: "Good, good. Take me through this Bill for a second. I think I'm mixing this Bill up with one we discussed yesterday. Can you walk me through it, please?"
"I'm sorry, Representative. I didn’t hear what you asked." Wheeler, K.: "I think I may be confusing this Bill with one we talked about yesterday. Would you mind walk me through the specifics of this Bill?"
"Well, simply put this Bill suggests that any body… and I'll call it a taxing body, government body that receives over $2 million in motor fuel tax money will then be required to put together a supplier diversity program in place for its contracts." Wheeler, K.: "Okay, that is not the Bill we talked about yesterday."
"No, this is not the Bill from yesterday. No." Wheeler, K.: "Okay. I'm just making… that's what I wanted to make sure of first. We discussed this Bill on the floor at one point previously, I believe. So you're saying for every $2 million the threshold?"
"Two million." 10000147.docx 28 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 Wheeler, K.: "So if you buy fuel or road salt or anything like that…"
"Well, for contracts." Wheeler, K.: "For contracts."
"So if we're talking about a road district, if they go to resurface a road and they fall over the $2 million threshold…" Wheeler, K.: "Which is everybody."
"No, it's not everybody. Surprisingly, it's not. Believe me, it's not. But if they get more than $2 million in motor fuel tax dollars then they would have to put a supplier diversity program in place for those contracts." Wheeler, K.: "So the threshold is for… is it per year the $2 million or is it if you ever touch $2 million?"
"Annually." Wheeler, K.: "Annually. And you're saying this is for a single contract or all of contracts in total?"
"Construction contracts." Wheeler, K.: "Right. So construction contracts but that could mean I've got a paving project here, I've got a sewer repair over here, I'm imagining my role as a road district guy. I've got other kinds of drainage issues you might be trying to repair. How does… tell me again is it an individual contract? Is it the vendor that has reached the $2 million threshold? Help me understand that threshold process." Davis: "Well, I mean, if they get $2 million in motor fuel tax dollars. So as we collect those dollars and then reissue them back… I'm meaning the state collects them and we reissue motor fuel tax dollars to municipalities and other groups… if they receive $2 million or more they simply have to put a what we 10000147.docx 29 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 may call it the state ABP program, if I can use that term, but a supplier diversity program in place for any construction contract that they move from that point forward." Wheeler, K.: "So a supplier diversity program, will that include thresholds or targets or goals for participation of different levels?"
"Well, I think in crafting a program there usually is a discussion about goals, you know, aspirational goals which are not hard, meaning that you try to get to them, and there could be provisions in place if you are unable to meet them. But the idea is to encourage this type of participation. What we are seeing across the entire State of Illinois are the emergence of what we would call minority contractors, whether they be woman contractors, African American, Latino, veterans, gay, lesbian. The categories are broadening, and we see them in a lot parts of the state. So we're simply saying in the same manner that we as a state try to encourage that level of participation in those contracts in which we put out there. We're creating or suggesting that if you get $2 million or more in motor fuel tax dollars that you have to create such a program as well." Wheeler, K.: "Okay. Tell me about the opponents of this Bill. What I'm seeing here may not be updated, and that's because you have Amendments on this. Who are the opponents of the Bill as amended?"
"Well, I think that the only opponent that I'm aware of are the operating engineers. I shouldn't say operating, the road builders. Excuse me, let me be clear on that, the road builders, whatever their technical term is here. But I know 10000147.docx 30 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 the road builders are opposed to that. And unfortunately, over the years that I've been doing these kinds of Bills, we've always run into opposition with the road builders. It's just… I don’t want to minimize what their thoughts or feelings are but we seem to… whenever we try to do supplier diversity issues we always seem to have challenges with the road builders in terms of what their opposition is. So you asked a question, that is a group that I know is opposed to this." Wheeler, K.: "Okay. No… our opponent list I don't think has been updated based on the last Amendment you filed there other than the… Thank you, Will. To the Bill."
"To the Bill." Wheeler, K.: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I enjoy working with the Sponsor of this Bill on legislation and having good discussions. We had a good discussion just yesterday about how we might better address diversity issues within the construction industry with respect to how public monies are spent. I would much rather address that process first and how we can actually help not just the vendors but the actual workers within those processes. And until then, I'm going to be reluctant to support this measure. Gosh I hope, Will, we get together and find a more balanced approach that will actually be workable and address the issues that you are concerned about that I'm also concern about. So with that, thank you, I'll be voting 'no'."
"Further discussion? Representative Davidsmeyer."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"The Sponsor will yield." 10000147.docx 31 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Representative Davis, I just want to clarify a few things you were talking about earlier. When you talk about $2 million you're not talking about a single project, you're talking about the amount of motor fuel tax revenue that a public body receives. So if they receive a… if they receive $2 million and they go out to do a 10 thousand dollar project, will they have to have a DBE requirement?"
"Yes."
"Yes. Okay. And when you spoke with the road builders… I assume you spoke with them?"
"I did."
"What was their opposition?"
"I believe their opposition had to do with certification."
"Certification?"
"Yes."
"How so?"
"I guess what I'll… and hopefully I can remember the conversation correctly, is they felt that they wanted a higher level of certification for minority vendors than even what our DBE program at the state requires."
"And I will say currently that the DBE requirement… there is a ton of paperwork, there's a lot to go through to certify that you have that whether you're a woman or minority, black, white… or black, Asian, whatever you may be, there's a lot of paperwork to go through to get that. And I think one of the major concerns… and I hope everyone will listen to this a little bit… because one of the major concerns… I don’t have a problem with what you are trying to do with this Bill. My concern and the concern of most road builders is that there 10000147.docx 32 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 aren’t enough DBEs out there to help on current projects. Right? They are struggling to find enough DBEs to meet current requirements. So if we expand this to more projects what's going to happen is if you have a project that has… let’s say it has a 50-day working period, right? You have to project done from day 1 you start, you have to have it done by day 50. Well, if you've got a DBE trying to do 10 different projects, you're going to extend those people into penalty periods meaning they have to pay the entity for the days that they go over, because we required a DBE requirement. So if there were plenty of DBEs out there, I don’t think you'd have a problem."
"Well, now my practical experience with this… and I don’t know if you have practical experience…"
"I do."
"…is that there are a lot of DBE contractors out there. So on any given project… and I can appreciate what you are saying… is that there are enough DBEs now to go around. Now if you're talking about maybe in certain parts of the state, okay. But my question to you would be is that if there's a contract list, since you said you have practical experience, and if that contractor is having trouble meeting that then what do they do? You said you had practical experience. So then tell me, what do they have the ability to do?"
"They either have to wait and try to get an extension on the length of the project or they can try to get a decrease in DBE requirement."
"No. Not necessarily a decrease, they ask for waiver."
"Well, that's a decrease." 10000147.docx 33 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Well okay, well… no, a waiver is not a decrease. A waiver is saying we don’t… we can't meet it at all. So maybe they might have a lower percentage, but they ask for a waiver. Now do I like the waiver process? No. But unfortunately, it's currently something that exists. So even to the question that you raised about what happens if there aren’t enough, and in some cases there are plenty, but the prime contractors are only picking certain ones to do the work. That’s the practical part of this. But nevertheless, they do have the opportunity to apply for a waiver if they in having good faith effort cannot find anyone to do the work."
"And so what did your… this Amendment you put forward, who actually brought forward the Bill originally?"
"Who brought forward the Bill?"
"Who requested it?"
"The Bill was… it's a Senate Bill, and it came from Senator Clayborne."
"My understanding was that the City of Chicago requested it."
"The Bill?"
"Yes."
"I don't… well that's not my understanding. Senator Clayborne, like myself, has been doing a lot of supplier diversity Bills. If you've looked as his litany of Bills, you'll see several efforts to try to improve supplier diversity. So this was a Bill that was brought to him, I don’t believe it was brought by the city. I don't believe it was."
"Okay, I was told it was brought by the city." 10000147.docx 34 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Now, let me answer your question. In fairness, Amendment #5 was brought by the city, not the Bill. Amendment #5… because City of Chicago we already have a program and we're concerned. But that's where Amendment #5 came from. So again in fairness to my chamber, let me answer that question for you. The Bill itself… I mean, why would the city… the city already has a program. So they have no interest in moving a Bill like this. This came from Senator Clayborne."
"Have you done research to see if anybody else has a program other than the City of Chicago?"
"I think there are couple of other programs out there. I think, I'm not sure."
"Did we file an Amendment to exclude them as well since they already have it?"
"Well I think this Amendment covers all of those… anybody that already has a program as such that Amendment, which came from the City of Chicago admittedly, does cover any entity that already has this type of program in place."
"So, as somebody who doesn’t live in the City of Chicago… you don’t… do you live in the City of the Chicago?"
"I don't either."
"I didn’t believe so. So my concern is what's good for the goose is good for the gander, right? If they already have program, they can go above and beyond if they want to, right? So if you're setting a minimum standard, why wouldn’t you apply that minimum standard to the City of Chicago?"
"Well, I'm just simply saying they already have a program. But to your point…" 10000147.docx 35 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"But after you pass this Bill if it becomes law then the City of Chicago could… and I'm not saying they would… but they could go in and say we're going to get rid of our DBE requirement."
"And then you know what I will do?"
"You'd file a Bill and you'd tell them they have to do it."
"Absolutely."
"Well, why don’t we just kill two birds with one stone and put Chicago back in this?"
"The Amendment says that they still have to maintain a program, but in terms of this legislation and that which is in it, they just ask for… to be excluded or any entity that does already meet that threshold, already has that program in place, we did. Now I don’t think I'm doing anything that we haven’t done in this chamber before in terms of somebody that already has something and somebody saying well, why don’t we leave them out of what we're attempting to do? I don’t think I'm breaking any new ground here, Representative."
"You're setting a standard for everyone else and you're not setting that minimum standard for the majority, the largest part of our state."
"Because they already have a program."
"But tomorrow they could come in and say, no. You need to set that minimum standard across the board. If you're going to apply, apply it evenly. The City of Chicago gets left out of a lot of Bills, you force things on the rest of the state that frankly hurt us terribly. How does this affect Home Rule?" 10000147.docx 36 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"How does it affect Home Rule?"
"Yeah. Does this override Home Rule?"
"According to what I'm being told, no, it doesn’t."
"So, if they currently have Home Rule, they do not have to abide by this?"
"Yes. Hold on, Representative. So it simply says if you get $2 million you have put a program in place. So if a Home Rule entity that gets… that currently gets… meets that threshold decides that, to your point because their Home Rule, they don’t want to do this then they could forfeit their motor fuel tax dollars."
"So you are… this is a requirement on Home Rule. So it does override Home Rule?"
"No, it doesn’t. They can make a choice."
"They can decide to lose $2 million that’s actually their money that the state collects on their behalf? It's their roads but the state collects that money from motor fuel tax on their behalf. It is not our money, it is their portion of money that's collected from the fuel. It's not the state's money, we don’t give it out at good will."
"And the state is reimbursing it back to them. So I guess my question to you, Representative, what's wrong with that municipality or whomever having a program to increase participation? Let's just get to crux of what you're asking. What's wrong with it?"
"There aren’t enough out there to do the work."
"I disagree."
"And it increased cost of projects, it does." 10000147.docx 37 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"I disagree that there is not enough. We see it all the time that contractors are leaving out minority vendors when they do these projects. We see it all the time. Now if you're talking about specifically in your area of the state maybe that's the case."
"No, I'm talking throughout the state. I'm talking outside of the City of Chicago. Maybe the City of Chicago is perfectly fine but outside of the City of Chicago…"
"Well then let me tell you where the short-sidedness is because when we talk about contracts often we have…"
"Representatives, we didn’t… the Chair has not employed the timer, but this piece of the discussion has been going on for a significant period of time. So I would ask the Representative who has the floor to begin to bring your remarks to a close. And I would ask the Representative who is answering questions to answer them briefly. Representative Davidsmeyer."
"To the Bill. We are forcing things on…"
"To the Bill."
"…the rest of the State of Illinois that the Chicago already does and we're excluding them. I know a number of you represent the City of Chicago and it's good for them, I'm glad that they're able to do that, but not everybody is. There aren’t enough current contractors out there to do the IDOT work which currently has the requirement. And I don’t believe that we're excluding IDOT from this since they already have the current requirement. So we are forcing a Home Rule entity to not accept motor fuel taxes in order to surpass this requirement. I mean, this is absolutely insane. There is no 10000147.docx 38 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 way that State of Illinois can do this. It's pie in the sky. You know, I would be happy to work with you and work with the road builders and work with, you know, the operators and whoever else is involved in all this stuff to try to come up with something that actually works, because I think what we want to do is make sure more minorities are working. Just because it’s a minority-owned business doesn’t mean more minorities are working. Most of the time they got the same exact guys working on that job that a nonminority contractor would have. So if the guys in the hall… or gals in the hall are mostly White you're going to get mostly white people working for the DBE. I understand what you are trying to do and I really think that we need to narrow this down and dive in and figure out how to actually accomplish what you're trying to do because this Bill does not do this. It’s a feel good Bill for you making you believe that you're going to put more minorities to work but that’s not what this is doing, I promise you. I urge you to think about this. Let's not pass this Bill and put it to the side and pretend like we accomplished something. Let's not pass it and let's work on something that actually puts people to work that we're trying to put to work. I applaud you for what you're trying to do but this does not do it. I assure you it does not do it. Thank you."
"Further discussion? Representative Ives."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield for questions?"
"Sponsor will yield." 10000147.docx 39 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Representative Davis, just a few questions. How did you pick the $2 million threshold?"
"How did we get to the…"
"Yeah, how did you decide on $2 million?"
"It actually was $1 million…"
"I understand that."
"…and because some of the opposition, we raised the threshold."
"And so, why $1 million? What… is it a magical number? How did you decide on $1 million?"
"Well, it should be significant if you're getting a significant resource from the state. So but again, you're asking me a question because this was a Senate Bill, I don’t…"
"The motor fuel tax is actually…"
"I don’t know why Senator Clayborne initially chose $1 million, but I know in conversation with some of the opposition subsequently raised to 2."
"Do you know how many communities are affected then by the $2 million threshold?"
"I don’t."
"You don’t know?
"No."
"Okay. Is your community, East Hazel Crest where you live, is that affected by the $2 million threshold?"
"I'm certain that it's not. East Hazel Crest is one precinct big."
"So, you're… you’re actually…"
"And I don’t live East Hazel Crest, that's where my office is." 10000147.docx 40 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Okay, where do you live then?"
"I live in Homewood."
"So is Homewood affected by this legislation?"
"No, it’s a town of about 12 thousand people. No."
"So you're putting a requirement on all other communities and your own community is not affected at all. So why did you have a threshold to begin with? Why not just anybody who gets motor fuel tax has to be subject to this?"
"Well, again I… like I just shared with you reason why it was ever raised to 2 million is because some of the opposition that's out there."
"Yeah, but I think your goal is that you want more minority workers. And so why not just make it flat out if you get any motor fuel tax you're affected."
"I guess I think how I can answer that is, is that obviously $2 million is a significant amount of money and that means it's probably a larger body that's going to do more projects, larger projects."
"So the people in Wheaton can be affected by a Bill, that you're running, that your own community is not affected by."
"I don’t know, you tell me. Does Wheaton get that much?"
"Absolutely."
"It’s a pretty rich community, isn’t it?"
"You know what motor fuel tax is not necessarily a state tax, it’s a pass-through tax, because we pay the sales tax on it from our prospective. We pay that motor fuel tax in our community, and we receive back, as does every other community what we… a portion of that."
"Okay." 10000147.docx 41 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"So it is not necessarily a state-sourced tax, just for your information. Now as far as it goes with the City of Chicago, do you know for a fact and can you show me the report that the City of Chicago actually meets it MBE requirements?"
"Well had I been given this question prior to I probably could have asked them for a report. To answer the question whether they meet it or not, but I don’t have a report that… that does… that answers that question, I don't."
"I have serious doubts that they even meet their own requirements. An before we go forward in putting legislation on folks, if you're using City of Chicago as the gold standard for this and then you can't even tell me whether or not they're meeting their own requirements, I have a problem with that."
"I don’t think I said City of Chicago was the gold standard for it. The Gentleman asked a question about the amendment…"
"Okay, you're right. Though that's my interpretation of the entire discussion."
"Well I didn’t say that. The question was asked of me where the Amendment… where the Bill came from. I simply answered a question. I don’t think that I ever indicated that Chicago was the gold standard in any of this. We're simply trying to increase…"
"Obviously, you took an Amendment from the City of Chicago, you've carved out Chicago in this. You're making a huge assumption that the City of Chicago is even…"
"We carved out entities that already have supplier diversity programs. Be clear, if you're going to say it, be clear. We carved out anyone that already has a program." 10000147.docx 42 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"So I'd like to see a report on every party who has a program and whether or not over the last five years or the duration that they've had that program, whether or not they have actually meet the requirements before… wait…"
"I tell you what, Representative, send me a letter with what you're asking for and I will get answer to every question that you ask. Now again, all I'm simply saying is that…"
"Okay, Madam Speaker. To the Bill."
"To the Bill. And if you could keep your remarks brief. Remember we're trying to get on the road before the weather worsens." Ives: "Sure, thank you. So this Bill obviously important because one, I'm sick and tired of sitting here on the House floor and we're passing legislation on a Motion and making this a fact-free environment. Now if you're going to run a Bill like this you better have some reports to back up what you are trying to do. And that is the problem here. Additionally, it’s a little bit inconsiderate for somebody to sponsor legislation that does not affect their own community and then force that requirement, which is nothing more than a property tax increase… make no doubt about this, this is a property tax increase because when they take away your motor fuel tax because you can't even find enough NBOs to actually support the legislation. When you can't find that then you're faced with a property tax increase to do the work that you want to. Additionally, super charging a five percent rate on any contract just simply because it’s a minority-owned business is wrong. And I want to see the statistics from the City of Chicago that have paid a five percent increase on all the 10000147.docx 43 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 work they have done. Additionally, don’t think for a minute that this is limited to your road work in your municipality. I don’t know why the Sponsor just decided to use motor fuel tax as an example, but if this legislation passes, there's no doubt the next thing it's going to be is a portion of your sales tax or whatever it's going to be confiscated if you don’t do all you're contracting. According to our staff, there's nothing in here that doesn’t say that the contracts also have to include anything that you would do for other infrastructure improvements. For… let's say you had to hire somebody for technology services, there's no contract. Accounting services, personnel services, there's no contract that would not be subject to this according to our staff's analysis. So this is a massive property tax increase. It's unfair, blatantly unfair to require this of communities and the Sponsor's community is being unaffected. Please vote 'no'."
"For the discussion… further brief discussion, Representative Andersson."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think I'll speak to the Bill."
"To the Bill."
"I want to bring it back a little bit from the emotional aspect of it. This… you know, the concept, Representative Davis, is a good one, obviously. We have at the federal level, we have at the state level right now. You're trying to enhance it and I understand that. But this is one example for me where the Bill isn't quite soup yet, and that's for a couple of reasons. One is when I talked to the road builders about it, 10000147.docx 44 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 one of the concerns they had was that there is no prequalification process built into the DBE process. And so you may end up with groups that are truly not qualified to do the work, and yet a municipality may have no choice but to take those where the prime contractor might have no choice to make those choices, which ends up perhaps with a bad road. I don’t know that to be the fact, but that is the concern of the professional road builders. So that to me is something that says we could fix the Bill with that regard and by doing so make it better. In other words, it's not soup yet. The other aspect of it for me is a technical problem with it, which is that your House Floor Amendment #2 changed the definition of contracts. When you spoke earlier you spoke in terms of that this is construction contracts, but that's in fact not the case as result of House Floor Amendment #2. House Floor Amendment #2 replaced contracts with all contracts including but not limited to contracts funded using motor fuel tax. So that means the attorney for municipality, say me, my contract has to have DBE provision in it. The engineer for the municipality has to have a DBE in it. The architect, you name it, the professional services and in it runs directly foul of a different statute, which is the Professional Services Selection Act. This needs to be clarified. So while… as always I view your Bills as good and in good faith and trying to do good things, there's just several items that are not soup yet in this Bill which forces me to vote against it. And I do have inquiry of the Chair or the Parliamentarian which is that I saw the various Amendments go through, it originally had one effective date then that was amended to 10000147.docx 45 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 another effective date and then that was repealed, a quite honestly I'm confused as to what the effective date is."
"The effective date is immediate and that will mean that the Bill will require 71 votes for passage."
"Thank you, Madam Chair."
"Representative McDermed for brief comments."
"Thank you, Madam Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Briefly he will."
"Representative, my question concerns the cost associated with this Bill. I notice that a couple of my villages are on the list and I know my mayors are very concerned. My Cook County mayors are already dealing with a lot of cost structure imposed on them by the county that's not necessarily imposed on other villages in other parts of the state. So my question to you is this, what additional cost will your Bill bring for municipalities that are subject to this Bill?"
"You're saying what additional cost will it bring? Let's be clear about one thing, Representative, the Bill suggests that if you get that level of funding that you just have to have a supplier diversity program in place and set goals. Previous speaker, unfortunately, the organization he mentioned did not… they weren't truthful with him, because when they talking about prequalifications as one of the previous Speakers talked about all the extensive documentation that’s necessary for prequalification. So were aren’t saying that they have to bring on businesses that aren’t qualified to do the work, but they want a higher standard of qualification for minority businesses that isn’t 10000147.docx 46 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 being imposed on anyone else. So the Bill in and of itself is not suggesting that there has to be additional cost. Previous speaker talked about property taxes. Unfortunately, everything we do here raises property taxes in her opinion, but this isn’t about raising property taxes, it’s about encouraging participation on projects. So the Bill in and of itself is not suggesting that the cost of projects has to go up by any certain percentage, unless I missed it in there and maybe you can point it out to me where it says that."
"My question concerns unintended consequences. I understand the general goal of the Bill, which is a very excellent goal."
"Do…"
"My question concerns, what are the unintended consequences of imposing yet one more requirement on our poor beleaguered municipalities. We're taking more of a fee, you know, where the state is charging them more to the release their taxes to them. And now we're saying you have to setup a program, you have to qualify these people, you have to hire somebody to setup the program…"
"I don't… well the municipality doesn’t have… the municipalities doesn't have to qualify it."
"…you have to pay all these delays because the things aren’t getting built on time. All these costs property taxes and most property taxes are imposed on all the citizens of that village no matter what color they are."
"Representative, I'm not sure where you're coming from, what have you, but everything we do here doesn't raise 10000147.docx 47 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 property taxes. And I'm sorry you feel that way, but it doesn’t. So again this is about putting…"
"Well, why doesn’t this raise property taxes?"
"…this is about putting a program in place, simple as that, putting a program in place to encourage participation. Now again…"
"Programs don’t descend from heaven like manna, somebody has to write them." Davis: "…tell me a municipality… tell me a municipality that doesn't have single sole source contracts. Which means…"
"Could I ask… the Chair request that the person who has the floor and the person who is responding to her questions would take turns? Thank you."
"A lot the municipalities have sole source contracts, that’s an additional cost because we don’t know what that company is charging that municipality to do so. I mean if you want to get technical about it then let's examine everything. Don’t just pick on this particular issue saying, because we want to increase minority participation all of the sudden costs are going up. We don’t know that."
"Well we don’t know that it doesn’t either. All right, to the Bill."
"To the Bill."
"In the event that this has a positive outcome, I request verification."
"Your request has been noted. For the final word, the last word on this topic, Representative Ammons."
"Thank you. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"The Sponsor will yield." 10000147.docx 48 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"Thank you. Representative Davis, let me just go back to the original intent of this particular Bill. I received a notification from a business owner with the current DBE goals for the State of Illinois, and it looked like we were at about two percent in the State of Illinois. Is that something that you are familiar with?"
"I guess I would need to know more specificity in the terms of…"
"Out of the Illinois Department of Transportation contracting."
"I don’t know that to be a hundred percent certain, but I'm not surprised that IDOT doesn’t meet the goals."
"And would this Bill address the issue of issuing automatic waivers as opposed to requiring the contractor… the prime contractor to work with minority firms and not receive waivers to get around that process?"
"You're asking whether or not this Bill addresses the issue of issuing waivers when there are none?"
"Yes."
"I don’t believe it does."
"Can you clarify the intent and purpose of this Bill?"
"Well, as I understand it, Representative, coming over from the Senate the idea was that if an entity, and I'll use that term generically, receives a least $2 million in motor fuel tax dollars from the state that they would then be required to put a… what I'm calling a supplier diversity program, sometimes we call it here BEP program… but a program in place to bring on more minority contractors into their projects." 10000147.docx 49 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018
"I appreciate your clarification of this. To the Bill."
"To the Bill."
"It is unfortunate and I do understand the argument of the Members across the aisle as to why they would think this Bill would be completely unnecessary. We would hope that a Bill like this would be unnecessary, but if the Members took a moment and looked at the state goals around all contracting you will find, as one of the Members suggested, that you would find that the minority participation and specifically African American participation hovers around two to six percent completely in the state. And in some places if the state, no minorities are used on any projects that are using taxpayer dollars. And so, unfortunately, we are at a point in history where we have not corrected the unfettered access to capital by the majority community and the lack of capital access by the minority communities. And this is a required and necessary Bill to address that and to bring equity. And so, if we want to make sure that our motor fuel taxes that are taken from all residents of the state, regardless to what color they are, are spent in our communities in an equitable fashion, this Bill is necessary. And I encourage an 'aye' vote from every Member of the chamber to show that we are committed to bringing a closure to the disparity between minority firms and majority firms in the State of Illinois and providing true access to those who have been locked out. It is not hard for us to find. I pulled up the stat from the Illinois Department of Transportation of two to six percent minority participation and in some places it is zero, and we should 10000147.docx 50 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 not allow that in the State Illinois. And so I urge an 'aye' vote in support of the Representative's request."
"Representative Davis to close."
"Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, thank you to the previous speakers. It's… it will be very easy for me to take a very defensive tone in this conversation. I can appreciate the fact that some Members, particularly those on the other side of the aisle, this is not something that they ever have to deal with because their communities are never faced with these kinds of challenges. Woman from Wheaton, as… she's asking me about my communities I would imagine that Wheaton probably doesn’t have any percentages of minority participation in its projects. I think the road builders are providing Representative in the back row with some false information about qualifications. I don’t think any of us would not want a business who is not qualified to do a project. But again, if we're saying that we need to heap on greater qualifications for minority businesses then that’s disingenuous 'cause that essentially what they've been asking. Gentleman standing there with the beard, in the beard… I'm trying to avoid using names 'cause I don’t want to invoke any additional debate so I apologize. But the Representative there… again, we want to do these kinds of projects for the reasons that the last speaker spoke to because it would be great if we didn’t have to so this. To be honest with you, it would be great if we didn’t have to do this. Now maybe some of you might say this isn’t soup yet, but at some point some place we got to start. And unfortunately, it's only through legislative action do sometimes we even bring about the conversation of trying to 10000147.docx 51 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 fix these things, because unfortunately, those that do control would not be doing them otherwise. We do have some great players out there that see the benefit to this and want to do this, but for the most part, in turns of all the money that is being spent the billions of dollars that are being spent… which again, we are spending billions of dollars. Why shouldn't I be an advocate for trying to make sure that diversity, and I'll say diversity… yes, I'm an African- American Member and do I want to see black businesses? Of course. But I'll just use the term diversity, women-owned businesses, white women businesses, gay, lesbian, Latino whoever it is, whatever that… whatever that requires why wouldn’t we want to see that happen? And this is just another way of trying to encourage it. Again, if those entities that already receive some amount, you know, this high amount of money, we're already doing these programs… and I think on some level you pick businesses with that… or you pick a threshold that high because these are the larger communities. They're spending a lot of dollars to do projects and to do things like that. So why would we not want to encourage these kinds of efforts to make sure? Again, you can look at any of these supplier diversity work that I've done over the last several years. I agree we do this because we have to do it, because those that do control and have the ability won't do it otherwise. And for the Representative who is now standing in the front there, maybe you can have a conversation with Representative from west Chicago who has been appointed by your Leader to sit on the Fair Practices and Contracting Task Force. Now while that has a specific interest in focusing on 10000147.docx 52 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 African-American businesses what he hears is some of the bigger challenges everywhere with contractors and opportunities, and we're just talking about state monies as well. And that's why we've asked every agency in the State of Illinois to put together an action plan. And again, that has a specific interest, but he can tell you some of the stories that we hear and the challenges that we hear, because he's attended some of those meetings. And again, he's aware of some of those greater challenges. So if you really want to know, and that goes for anybody in the chamber, participate in some of these kinds of groups. Come hear the stories that others are telling about how they want to work, they desire to work, you know, but are not given all the opportunities available them to work or the rules and the regulations prohibit them from being able to get work. These are people who are business owners who simply want to be able to feed their families and put other people to work so that they can feed their families. I mean the idea that this is… we're trying to be onerous that we're trying to be punitive in some way, you know, that’s a little challenging for me as a Representative. And I know that there might be some actions that take place in this chamber that are designed to be onerous and punitive, but I can assure you that this is not one of them. Not trying to be that way, just simply trying to encourage participation. And again, as I know legislation sometimes you can have all the conversation in the world and when nothing moves those that don’t want it to move are extremely happy that is the case. But when you introduce a 10000147.docx 53 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 piece of legislation then that's when at least the conversation takes place. So…"
"Are you finished, Representative?"
"Well I just have a document here and I'll be more than happy to share it. It talks about all the requirements that a business has to go through to certify. So they already have a ton of hoops for those that don’t think that certification of businesses don’t have to certify. They already have a ton of hoops. And the goal here was to make sure that they don’t have to have extraordinary hoops in order to be able to do that work. I can assure you that whatever happens with this Bill it will probably come back, and there will be additional legislation to follow, again, to try to figure out ways to encourage participation and create opportunities. Now one of the things that we do know, and maybe this is to the Gentleman standing there, one thing that we do know in our efforts to try to increase that work force diversity… and you shared with me some nuances where our efforts need to be looked at a little differently. But when you look at that in its entirety one of the things that we do know is that when you hire an African American or give them a contract they reach back into their communities and hire individuals and not everybody does that. There are some white contractors, and I've had the pleasure of meeting some of them, that understand the need for having a diverse workforce. And they do what they can to have to a diverse workforce to make sure that there are opportunities across the board so that those dollars come back into communities. Some of the challenges that we have in our communities and why they can't thrive and why 10000147.docx 54 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 they can't grow is because the people there don’t have an opportunity to work or they're challenged by the fact that the only way that I can get a job is that if I live in Harvey, Illinois I got to travel all the way to Arlington Heights, I got to travel all the way to Wheaton to try to get a job. And then they got a whole bunch of other challenges of trying to get there but that notwithstanding we know that they're challenged but sometimes when these contractors… when Shon Harris from LiveWire Electrical in Calumet Park, Illinois, when he's on the job, I can assure that he has diversity in his workforce. Michael Trimuel, Trim's Trucking located in Harvey, Illinois, when he's on the job, I can assure you that he has diversity in his workforce. But that's something we can't guarantee with everyone else. So again, these efforts are designed to try to move the issues forward, create the dialog necessary. And as we know, once we do something if there's a need to change, as some of the other Members have talked about the need to, you know, maybe do things or figure some other thing out, we can always come back and do it. And if there… if what they want to do is supportive and positive and helps continue to move the ball in the right direction, they know that I'll be supportive and I'll be with them on that. So that been said, Madam Chair, I ask for a 'yes' vote."
"Representative Davis moves for passage of Senate Bill 2610. That Motion will require a 71 votes. A verification has been requested. So the voting is open. Members should please vote your own switches. All in favor vote 'aye'; opposed 'no'. Voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Clerk, 10000147.docx 55 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 please take the record. On this Motion, there are 45 voting 'yes', 37 voting 'no', 11 voting 'present'. And this measure, having failed to achieve the required Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared lost. Representative Turner in the Chair."
"On page 2 of the Calendar under House Bills on Second Reading, we have House Bill 982, Leader Currie. Mr. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"House Bill 982, a Bill for an Act concerning government. The Bill was read for a second time previously. No Committee Amendments. Floor Amendment #1 is offered by Representative Currie."
"Leader Currie on Floor Amendment #1."
"Thank you, Speaker and Members of the House. It’s a technical Amendment cleaning up the Election Code in the county of Cook. I'd appreciate your 'aye' votes and I'd be happy to discuss it on Third Reading."
"Lady moves for the adoption of floor Amendment #1 to the House Bill 982. All in favor say 'aye'; all opposed say 'nay'. In opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And the Amendment is adopted. Mr. Clerk."
"No further Amendments. No Motions are filed."
"Third Reading. Mr. Clerk, House Bill 982 for a third time."
"House Bill 982, a Bill for an Act concerning government. Third Reading of this House Bill."
"Leader Currie."
"Thank you, Speaker and Members of the House. What this does is to correct some questionable language in the current 10000147.docx 56 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 statute involving a succession in the office of the Cook County Board President. What this provides is that in the event that there is not a lot of time remaining in the president's term, should there be a vacancy that the sitting members of the board can fill the vacancy. In addition, it provides that if there is a special election, which would be triggered if 28 months remain in the president's term, then there will be an election, a special election. And under this language, anyone may run for that job, anyone who meets the qualifications. The current language would seem to suggest that only a member of the Cook County Board could seek that election in the event that a special election were trigged. I'd be happy to answer your questions. As I say, it's a technical Bill and I'd appreciate your 'aye' votes."
"Representative David Harris is recognized." Harris, D.: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Question of the Sponsor."
"Sponsor indicates that she will yield." Harris, D.: "Representative, did I hear you say that if a vacancy occurred in office of the president of the board, that the city members of the board or the sitting members of the board? Did you say city or sitting?"
"Sitting. Sitting. Sitting." Harris, D.: "Thank you."
"Representative Currie to close."
"Thank you. It's a pretty technical Bill. I appreciate your 'yes' vote."
"The question is, 'Shall House Bill 982 pass?' All in favor vote 'aye'; all opposed vote 'nay'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? 10000147.docx 57 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On a count of 97 voting in 'favor', 0 voting 'opposed', and 0 voting 'present'. House Bill 982, having received the Constitution Majority, is hereby declared passed. Members, on Supplemental Calendar #1, we have House Bill 4265, Representative Flowers. Mr. Clerk, please read the Bill."
"House Bill 4265, a Bill for an Act concerning criminal law. The Bill was read for a second time previously. No Committee Amendments. Floor Amendment #1 is offered by Representatives Flowers."
"Leader Flowers on Floor Amendment #1."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I would like to pass this Amendment on to Representative Andersson since he was kind enough to help me with this, please. Representative Andersson."
"Representative Andersson on Floor Amendment #1."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated a little earlier in the morning, the original Bill had a bit of a difficulty or defect in it in that it required two levels of service, personal service to get to the issuing of a warrant. The Lady's Bill is a good one. The goal of the Bill is to ensure that people who are in default on their payments don’t automatically become subject to warrants without a little notice first. This Bill now, with this Amendment in place, will ensure that before a warrant can be issued that a failure-to-pay notice, which will be sent through the regular mail, will be delivered hopefully… I mean there's no guarantees, but hopefully to the person who has failed to pay. So, it ensures that a person has a second chance to know 10000147.docx 58 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 that they owe some money before very serious consequences can occur, which would be a warrant. I think the Bill is excellent. I was tempted to channel Representative Flowers tonal quality, but I realized I couldn’t. So I will simply say one thing, it is for the children."
"Lady moves for the adoption of Floor Amendment #1 to House Bill 4265. All in favor say 'aye'; all opposed say 'nay'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And the Amendment is adopted. Mr. Clerk."
"No further Amendments. No Motions are filed."
"Third Reading. Mr. Clerk, House Bill 4265."
"House Bill 4265, a Bill for an Act concerning criminal law. Third Reading of this House Bill."
"Leader Flowers."
"Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, Representative Andersson and I would appreciate an 'aye' vote. Thank you."
"Seeing no debate, the question is, 'Shall House Bill 4265 pass?' All in favor vote 'aye'; all opposed vote 'nay'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On a count of 64 voting in 'favor', 33 voting 'opposed', and 0 voting 'present'. House Bill 4265, having received the Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. On page 8 of the Calendar under Amendatory Vetoes, we have House Bill 5177, Representative Burke. Representative Kelly Burke. Mr. Clerk… Representative Burke, you may proceed when you're ready." 10000147.docx 59 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 Burke, K.: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move to accept the Amendatory Veto of House Bill 5177, which provides a mechanism for rehearing for a very small group of Chicago police officers due to a… a court ruling that would allow them for a rehearing on an issue of whether they can count some service time toward… some time served as police officers towards their… their time to get a pension. And I ask for a 'yes' vote."
"Seeing no debate, Representative Burke moves to accept the specific recommendations of the Governor as to House Bill 5177. This Bill requires 60 votes. All in favor vote 'aye'; all opposed vote 'nay'. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, please take the record. On a count of 96 voting 'yes', 0 voting 'no', 2 voting 'present'. The Motion having received the Constitutional Majority, the specific recommendations of the Governor as to House Bill 5177 are accepted. On page 9 of the Calendar under Agreed Resolutions, we have House Resolution 1279, Representative Phelps Finnie."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. House Resolution 1279 is congratulating Valarie Hodges on her work for the Summer Food Program and Food Service. As many of you who live in impoverished areas as we do, it's such a vital program and feeds so many kids. So, I ask you all to congratulate me… congratulate Valarie Hodges. Thank you."
Speaker Turner: "Lady moves for the adoption of the House Resolution 1279. All in favor say 'aye'; all opposed say 'nay'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And the Resolution is adopted. Under the Order of Resolutions, we 10000147.docx 60 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 have House Joint Resolution 122, offered by Representative Swanson. Out of the record. House Resolution 1017, offered by Representative Welch."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. House Resolution 1017 acknowledges the economical and racial disparity gaps that exist among Illinois college completion rates and urges the states P-20 Council to update Illinois' 60 by 25 goal to include equity focused targets aimed at closing institutional racial and social… socio-economic achievement gaps. I would ask for immediate approval on House Resolution 1017."
Speaker Turner: "Representative Ford is recognized on the Resolution."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"
"Sponsor indicates that he will yield."
"Representative, I don’t think you're fair in this Bill, in Resolution as it sits on the board."
"Can you explain that, Sir?"
"So it's Welch, Stratton, Ammons, Ford. Is it possible that you could have had Ford, you know, in-between one of the two names so that it sort of balanced?"
"That’s pressure, man, that’s pressure."
"Which one will you remove?"
"I like the position that it's in right now. I think that's pretty equitable."
"Okay. I'll let you go with that. I like it, too."
"Gentleman moves for the adoption of House Resolution 1017. All in favor say 'aye'; all opposed say 'nay'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And 10000147.docx 61 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 the Resolution is adopted. House Resolution 1050, Representative Morrison. You may proceed."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. House Resolution 1050… I don’t have it up right in front of me… but it acknowledges the month of November as Alzheimer's Awareness Month. And I would ask the Body for a 'yes' vote. Thank you."
"Gentleman moves for the adoption of House Resolution 1050. All in favor say 'aye'; all opposed say 'nay'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And the Resolution is adopted. House Resolution 1117, Representative Reis."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. House Resolution 1117 recognizes the 75th anniversary of the GI Bill."
"Gentleman moves for the adoption of House Resolution 1117. All in favor say 'aye'; all opposed say 'nay'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And the Resolution is adopted. Senate Joint Resolution 65, Representative Bill Mitchell. Out of the record. Mr. Clerk, Agreed Resolutions."
"Agreed Resolutions. House Resolution 1289, offered by Representative Turner. House Resolution 1290, offered by Representative Wehrli. House Resolution 1291, offered by Representative McSweeney. House Resolution 1292, offered by Representative Feigenholtz. House Resolution 1293, offered by Representative Feigenholtz. House Resolution 1294, offered by Representative Andersson. And House Resolution 1295, offered by Representative Rita."
"Leader Currie moves for the adoption of the Agreed Resolutions. All in favor say 'aye'; all opposed say 10000147.docx 62 STATE OF ILLINOIS 100th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 147th Legislative Day 11/15/2018 'nay'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And the Resolution are adopted. And now, allowing perfunctory time for the Clerk, Leader Currie moves that the House stand adjourned until Tuesday, November 27. Tuesday, November 27. All in favor say 'aye'; all opposed say 'nay'. In the opinion of the Chair, the 'ayes' have it. And the House stands adjourned."
"House Perfunctory Session will come to order. Introduction and First Reading of House Bills. House Bill 5991, offered by Representative Zalewski, a Bill for an Act concerning revenue. House Bill 5992, offered by Representative Bennett, a Bill for an Act concerning transportation. First Reading of these House Bills. Introduction of Executive Orders. Executive Order 2018-10 offered by Governor Rauner on September 21, 2018 is referred to the Rules Committee. Executive order 2018-11 offered by Governor Rauner on September 21, 2018 is referred to the Rules Committee. There being no further business, the House Perfunctory Session will stand adjourned." 10000147.docx 63