July 5, 1994 "The House will come to order. We'll be led in the invocation today by Representative Jack Sheehy. The guests in the...balcony may wish to rise and join us for the invocation."
"Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask You send Your blessing on this Assembly. Grant that we may have understanding hearts and a compassionate nature as we fulfill our duties as Representatives of this great state. We thank You for the individual gifts You have given to each one of us. May we use them to the best of our abilities and for the common good of all those we represent. Bestow upon us the wisdom, the kindness, the justice and peace we have learned by the example of Your son, our Lord, in whose name we are gathered here today together. Amen."
"We will be led in the Pledge of Allegiance by Representative Bugielski."
"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."
"Roll Call for Attendance. Representative Black, excused absences?"
"I...I rise to a point of order, Mr. Speaker."
"Yes."
"Pursuant to Rule 55(d) and prior to the commencement of this roll call, I'm joined by ten of my Members in seeking a verified Oral Roll Call in lieu of the electrical roll call on the Attendance Roll. I would like the Chair to comply with that demand."
"Under...I note that you filed this and under...and under this filing, Rule 55(d) says that only 1 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 the Speaker my order a verified Oral Roll Call, and since you're not the Speaker, you won't be recognized for that."
"I just..."
"That's exactly what it says. All right. Mr. Kubik, have you got any excused absences?"
"Let the record reflect that Representative McAuliffe is excused today."
"Representative Currie, excused absences? There are no excused on the Democratic side. Mr. Clerk, take the record. One Hundred and Nine Members answering the roll call, a quorum is present, and the Second Special Session will come to order. Representative Andrea Moore, for what reason do you rise?" Moore, A.: "Mr. Speaker, it appears that there's some confusion on the ruling that you made, because the rules that you had passed out said, 'or vote on any question any ten Members may demand a verified roll call in lieu of the electrical roll call'. It also states that on such demand, the Speaker shall order a verified Oral Roll Call. This is voting...under voting, under 55(d)."
"Thank you. Thank you. Committee Reports."
"The Committee on Rules has met and pursuant to Rule 14(a)5 recommends consideration and the following Bill be placed on the Order of Concurrence: House Bill 12."
"Supplemental Calendar announcement."
"Supplemental #1 is being distributed."
"Speaker Madigan in the Chair."
"On the Order of House Calendar Supplemental #1 there appears House Bill 12, Mr. Ryder. The Chair recognizes Mr. Ryder."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would move that the House concur with Senate Amendment 1 to House Bill 12. This is 2 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 the budget as was sent to us by the Senate, it does...contain the effort of the Senate. It is a complete budget, funding for education, funding for the other agencies of the state. Passage of this budget would allow us to conclude our work expeditiously and to proceed with the business of the state."
"Anything further? The Chair recognizes Mr. McPike on the Motion. Mr. McPike."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I find it interesting that the previous speaker referred to this as a complete budget. I also listened to parts of the press conference that happened earlier this afternoon, in which the previous speaker also complained that we didn't pass a budget this year. I will note, for the record, that the Republican Members of this Body are the ones that carry the Governor's budget. The Democratic Members do carry the budget for education, K through 12, I believe it was Mr. Edley's Bill, and we did pass that over to the Senate. When the Republican Members were called upon to call their Bills, their budget Bills for a vote this year, they took them out of the record. When the Senate sent over a complete budget on House Bills, I believe they were House Bill 6, 7, and 9, I believe it was the previous speaker that made the Motion to nonconcur in House Bill 6, 7, and 9 and, therefore, defeat the Senate's budget that was in the House. So, they refused to call their budget, and they voted with the majority to defeat the Senate's budget. Now, we have the second Senate budget over here and it has been referred to as a complete budget. In the 18 years that I have been here, this is by far, and without question the most unusual budget I have ever seen, and the most unusual budget that has ever been presented to 3 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day this July 5, 1994 House chamber. Now you would expect the Chief Executive to present a budget to this chamber that actually covered 12 months of liabilities. You would not expect the Governor of this state to introduce a budget for the Department of Conservation that only funded the Department of Conservation for 9 months. You wouldn't expect the Governor in the state to introduce a budget for the Department of Agriculture that only funded the Department of Agriculture for 9 months. But he did do that, indeed, this year for Public Aid and he was questioned, not he directly, but Joan Walters was questioned in Room 114 as to why she decided or the administration decided to introduce a budget for Public Aid that only covered 9 months of liabilities for long term care. And her answer was, 'Well we are going to a new system next year in long term care, we're going to come up definitive payment schedules'. And so we asked the Director of Public Aid, 'What is the current payment cycle for long term care?' And the answer was, 'When it's over 105 days and it could be as much as 115, but it's over 105 days'. And so then we asked Joan, 'Well what do you plan in the new managed care, in your new managed care Bill that you are putting together, what will be your payment schedule for long term care?' She said, '110 days'. I said, 'Is there...are there any differences between the current program for long term care and the new program for long term care, except you're going from a 107 day payment cycle to a 110 day payment cycle'. She said, 'No, there is no difference whatsoever'. Well then why did you introduce a budget for 9 months of liabilities instead of a budget for 12 months liabilities? She said, 'That was our decision'. What she really meant was, we don't have the money, we wanted to borrow some money, we wanted to find 4 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 some magic money, but no matter how far we looked we could never find enough money for this quote 'complete budget'. So they introduced a budget this year for $2 billion for long term care, two thousand million, $2 billion dollars for long term care which is 9 months of liabilities. Now next year you'll have to have, or eventually, you have to introduce a budget for 12 months of liabilities. So, it is very simple to divide it into four quarters. All you have to do is divide long term care by three, that's how much you spend a quarter, that is $660 million a quarter. And SO they didn't add the fourth quarter, because they didn't have the $660 million for this complete budget. But next year, melt down year, you'll probably have to find that $660 million. And how about for non-long term care for this complete budget? Well in non-long term care they decided to give us an 11 month liability budget, not 12 months of liabilities, which we're suppose to have, 12 months of liabilities, 12 months of resources, run state government, be conservative, fiscally responsible. No, an 11 month budget of liabilities for non-long term care. That is only 3 billion, divide that by one-eleventh and you got another $300 million hole. So, now we are up to 660 plus 300, $960 million hole, and now they want to pay off some...some old bills in this quote, 'complete budget.' They want to pay off some old bills, 640 million. What don't they want to pay off? Seven Hundred Million. Now this complete budget is 960 plus 700, $1.6 billion. This complete budget put together by a conservative Republican administration that believes in fiscal responsibility is only $1.6 billion in the red, not counting the hospital tax that sunsets next year for another 600. So, next year will be melt down, but let's not pretend like this complete 5 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 budget has anything to do with the word complete as defined in the dictionary. That aside, that aside, I think that there might be a few things that the Senate Republicans missed in drafting this budget. Now I know its a 100% accurate according to their figures, but our staff did find a few things, and it's difficult to find because there is a gag order on with all the agency heads. And the previous speaker, that moved to concur in this, objected the other day in Room 114 when we said there was a gag order on, and so Mr. Hannig said to Joan Walters, 'If there is not a gag order, why won't your staff, why won't the agencies, respond to these 20 questions?' And she said, 'There is no gag order. You can talk to all the agencies heads, they just can't answer your questions. They can listen to you, we didn't tell them not to listen to you, but they can't answer your questions.' So since they can't answer our questions, it was difficult for us to decide what is in this budget and what is not in this budget. But I will read to you a few things that they might have forgot to add. They forgot to add $319,000 for elder abuse and neglect, 460 less cases in aging. They forgot to add $500,000 in aging for flood relief for the elderly. They forgot to add $2 million for community care program case load increase in '95 and 3.1 million for community care program for '94. This is something that the Governor forgot to tell us in March, April, May, or June, I take it back, he told us this June 28th. Joan Walters told us June 28th that, yes they were going to be $6 million short in aging and $54 million short in DCFS. We were both...all staffs were informed of this, but I think the Senate Republican staff forgot to put that 60 million in. In DASA, they forgot to put in a million dollars for 6 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 prevention services in the southern seven counties because...probably because they are represented by good Democrats, and they forgot to put in the money for 10 different communities in Chicago. They also forgot to put $2 million in for drug abuse and gang violence in Rockford, Chicago, East St. Louis, Peoria, Joliet, and DuPage County. They cut 600,000 in provider payments causing a three month further delay in payment providers. In DCFS, they forgot to put in a million dollars for pregnant and parenting teens in violation of court order. They forgot to put 1.9 million in therapeutic services for the abused and neglected children in psychiatric institutions, a further violation of the BH...consent decree. They forgot to put $1.8 million to eliminate additional intake centers in Cook County. And we've all been reading for the last two months about foster children sleeping on the floor at DCFS. Well, this 1.8 million that they forgot to put in is in further violation of a court order, and as I just mentioned, they did forget to put the $54 million that Joan told us about on June 28th, they forgot to put that in. And at this press conference we, the Democrats, were criticized because we suggested that we might open one of the new prisons, the four new intake centers, on April 1st because it represented 60% of all beds and delayed the other three until July 1st. Now at this press conference, I heard that this was absolutely unconscionable, that we would want to open one and delay the other three, but the Senate they just decided to delay all four of them. So, they cut $1.8 million out of corrections to delay the opening of all four of them. And of course, leave it to the Republican Senate never to forget about Chicago. They cut out $16 million for the Chicago circulator but, that would surprise no one. 7 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 That wouldn't surprise anyone. It wouldn't even surprise all the Republicans that leave the collar counties to go downtown Chicago and work. But they did manage to add, thank God, they did manage to add just a tiny bit of pork. It was hard to find, but we did find three itsey bitsey, tiny weeny pieces of pork, and where did they get this? Well, they cut $3.6 million out of the Americans With Disabilities Act. Absolutely. Now, that's a great place to cut it, isn't it? If you're going to cut someplace, lets take it away from Americans with disabilities, and where are we going to put it? Well, let's do something for Mr. Roskam at the College of DuPage, and let's do something for Senator Donahue over at Western Illinois University, and let's do something for Billy Black in Danville. Thank God we got that Armory taken care of in Danville. So, there you are. There you are, a hundred...there you are with a budget of at least $1.6 billion in the red that we all know, we all recognize, this complete budget 1.6 billion in the red. I just read off a list of 100 million things that they forgot to add and, of course, three pork projects that they did add. That together with the fact that I will remind you that the only Bill we passed out of this House dealing with the budget, which was sponsored by a Democrat, it called for coincidentally $25 million more for education than what the Governor had asked, and it passed out of here 115 to nothing. Now, this Bill will represent for those people that vote 'yes', you will be agreeing to cut 25 million in education that you voted on six weeks ago. So, have your pork, screw education, and forget about an unbalanced budget. Mr. Speaker, I intend to vote 'no'."
"Mr. Edley." 8 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day Edley: July 5, 1994 Speaker, Ladies I did Sponsor the "Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. and Gentlemen of the General Assembly. Bill that we passed out to fund education. We funded it at 25 million more than the Governor requested. Our committee worked long and hard in deciding where we were going spend that money, it was a bipartisan effort, we out of here. And now, we find, once again, that an to passed it there is There's a riverboat Who's been riverboat increase in the lottery gaming moneys. mystery out there, and the mystery now is of the gambler, but I think it has been solved. dipping into the state revenue, into the state gambling winnings? It is the gang who can't shot straight, the same gang of political honchos who have for the last 18 years dealt us from a stacked deck. It is the old con game played with the lottery funds. They are, where they have always been, hold up on the second floor in the Governor's office; plotting, scheming, practicing their games of deception. If you vote 'yes' today, you will go on record as supporting the double dealing budgeting practices of Governor Edgar, and the bogus budgeting practices that have robbed hundreds of millions of dollars from school children from throughout our state. Under the old law of the West, shifty eyed, double dealing, Jim Dandy gamblers caught cheating the House, were given the swift and sure justice of old Dodge City. And even though I am strongly in favor of capital punishment, as I hear the Governor is, there is no need for a lynching today. We'll just shoot down the Governor's budget, and vote 'no' and save the lynching for November."
"Mr. Ryder?"
"Do I have the opportunity to close on the Motion now, Mr. Speaker?" 9 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994
"There are others seeking recognition."
"Well, then I'll wait my time. Thank you, Sir."
"Okay. Mr. Tim Johnson." Johnson, Tim: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Members of the House. I guess I'm just kind of just a downstate Legislator and go home, and we listen to the people; not just captive of the Springfield, Washington mentality but the people who really go to the coffee shops and sit in their homes and watch this process and determine what we're doing, and maybe some of us have and some of us haven't, but I've been to and from everyday back to my district listening to people and talking to them on the phone. And they're not happy with what is going on down here. They say this is the fourth year, and they're right, or the fifth year in a row that we're here past the June 30th deadline. In fact, I guess we had a May deadline the last couple of years. We are in overtime Session, and they're right and that we're just wiling away the time, wasting the taxpayer's money when we could be acting on the taxpayer's business and be done with it and, they're right. This is the fifth year in a row this has happened. We're in overtime Session, and this budget allows us to adjourn the Illinois General Assembly, to get the people's done...business done, to quit wasting the taxpayer's money with us being here and doing nothing and still meet the priorities of the State of Illinois. This budget has no tax increase, it's fiscally responsible and meets the dictates of good sound fiscal management. In addition to that, it is the best budget we have had for education in eons. It does tremendous things for elementary and secondary education. And for those of us like Representative Prussing and I who represent University districts. It is a tremendous budget for higher education. 10 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 It puts pensions on a sound financial footing and does for the first time what we need to have done a long time ago. It's tough in the area of law enforcement when people are talking about crime. It deals with the needs of the entire State of Illinois and, in fact, deals with long term care basis on a 12 months basis and not a 9 months basis. This is a good budget. It balances the overall needs of the State of Illinois in a responsible way, and it finally gets us out of here, five days late, but it gets us out of here and the people's business is done. To vote 'no' on this budget, to vote 'no' on this Motion means we want to stay here again. We want to collect more per diem. We want to stay here and wait until we come up, with somehow, the perfect budget. This is as close to ideal as we're going to get. It is a budget that prioritizes priorities in the way that the people of Illinois want them prioritized. It's responsible government, and to vote 'no' is voting in effect that, do you want to stay here, you want to continue, and you want to let people continue to say and they say it with good justification, that the people in the Illinois General Assembly are somehow out of touch with reality. We're not out of touch with reality on this side. We want to get a budget. We want to get a 'yes' vote. We want to adjourn. We want to pay the state employees who are in jeopardy who may face a situation where they can't make their rent payments or make their grocery payments, just because the Illinois General Assembly continues to meet here. This is a good budget. It deserves a 'yes' vote, and I believe that 95% of your constituents, if you ask them as I have and as I have listened to them, would ask you to vote for...vote 'yes' on this budget and get out of here and go home. I urge a 'yes' vote." 11 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day
"Mr. Lang." July 5, 1994
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. First, let me comment that the prior speaker seems to very interested in getting out of here. I think we all want to get out of here, but I don't think we're anxious to leave with a budget that we can't live with. The prior speaker talked about fiscal ...fiscal responsibility of House Bill 12. I don't think there is a whole lot of people on this side of the aisle that think a $1.6 billion hole in the state budget is fiscally responsible. Let's talk a little about what is in the budget or what is not in the budget. Let's talk about education. Everyone knows that those on this side of the aisle signed off on the Governor's original budget proposal; $245 million for education. We signed off on it. Let's put it in there, Governor. But when the magic money came forward, what did we find out? We found out there is an additional $25 million from gambling revenues. The law of the State of Illinois requires that gambling revenues go to education. There is no one of this side of the aisle who is prepared to say that that additional $25 million should not go to education. And if you're fiscally responsible, and if you're one that likes to follow the laws of the State of Illinois, the Constitution of the State of Illinois, then you want to say, 'Yes we agreed to 245, but here is an additional 25'. Now are we going to split this up, are we going to take 12.5 of that, half of that, as the Governor proposed and continue the shell game that we have had with gambling in the State of Illinois? Are we continue the lottery shell game? Are we going to continue the riverboat gambling shell game? I think those of us on this side of the aisle are prepared to say no, that we want to put as 12 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 much money into education as we can possibly put in there. We have agreed to the 245, the other 25 should be there, and any budget that doesn't include that extra $25 million for education, is short changing the school children of the State of Illinois. Let's talk about old bills. This budget talks about paying about $600 million in old bills counting the federal match. What we're talking about on this side of the aisle talks about $800 million, $800 million, an additional $200 million to pay back providers who have put money out, put services out to take care of sick people in the State of Illinois. And what have we said to these providers, hospitals, pharmacies, doctors, what have we said to them? We have said to them, 'You be our bank. You take care of these people, and we'll pay you back when we're good and ready'. Well it's not responsible to take an additional $200 million that we have here that could go to those providers and say, 'Carry us another year. We won't pay you interest, but carry us another year. Take care of sick people. Take care of all those people. We may never pay you back. We don't know what will happen next year but this year we're going to short change you $200 million'. So this budget not only short changes kids in Illinois, it short changes needy people, it short changes sick people. This is not a good budget. One more thing, this budget leaves out at least $10 million that should be paid into certain departments of the State of Illinois, pursuant to court order, consent degrees and other court orders. Ten million dollars, those funds are left out of this budget, and I don't know who's going to go into court and pay the attorney's fees when the State of Illinois has to go in there and defend itself for not doing what we're suppose to do under court order. Maybe the 13 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 Republicans will take it out of their pocket, but it would be unfair to the taxpayers of the State of Illinois to require them to pay more legal fees, more attorney's fees, more interest and have to deal with court orders in cases that have already been decided. On these three issues alone, not to mention the pork, not to mention new programs we can't afford, on these three issues alone this budget should be defeated resoundingly."
"Mr. Daniels."
"Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I have listened now to the top appropriations people from the Democrat side of the aisle and frankly, just like we were confused when you talked about magic money, and obviously you were confused because that explanation was very simply that money was in a bank. Everybody knew it. We showed you the documents on it. You said you didn't understand it. It didn't take long to explain it to you. Now apparently, you're confused once again, because when you talk about, as the Gentleman from Madison talked about earlier, when you talk about issues like, you didn't call your House Bills on appropriations. The amazing thing that we have on this side of the aisle is how you all try to rewrite history. You remember why we didn't call. You wouldn't call our Bills, and when you finally called the appropriation Bills, what did you do? It was after the deadlines. They were dead. They couldn't pass. The Senate wouldn't act upon them and all of those appropriation Bills and everything else where dead, and you knew it, and you knew it then. Of course, you carefully orchestrated passing the education portion that you now tout with such great success. Well, just for making sure we are all on the same line, the Governor proposes a budget, the General Assembly enacts. 14 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 This is our responsibility, not the responsibility of the Governor of the State of Illinois to pass a budget. He will work with us, furnish his advise, give us his thoughts, tell us what he'll sign, tell us what he'll veto. The advantages that we went through in the last few years in dealing in the negotiations has been that we've sat down with the Governor, worked out a budget, and then we have known what he's going to sign. Instead as we have done in the past, under Governor Thompson, many times we would send him a budget over inflated knowing he had to cut it by several hundred millions of dollars, and then he would cut it, and we'd come back and act on it. So, we have tried to refine that a little bit better in working with the Governor and, frankly, it's been fairly successful in the past. But what we have right now is an apparent obvious attempt to not only rewrite history, but also to change facts as they exist. Let's talk about this budget, and why I'm going to vote for House Bill 12, let's talk about what it does. You want to talk about education? I talk with pride when the Governor has proposed a $160 million increase in elementary and secondary education. You come back and you say, 'Oh that's not enough. We want 25 million more'. Lottery funds are down, riverboat funds are up, therefore, you want to take some of the difference and put it in education. Who is going to argue with that thought? Nobody is going to argue with that thought. It's just that when you put a $160 million more in education, one wonders why you want to continue stacking money into this. And you know, we get a little confused on this side of the aisle. You voted...you voted against charter schools, you voted against learning zones, you voted against improving reform in education and yet, you want to 15 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 continue to throw money at a system that in certain parts of the state hasn't worked. A hundred and sixty million dollars more this year, than last is a substantial increase and this Governor proposed it, and we're ready to vote on it right now to make it law. Let's talk a little bit more, $100 million more in general school aid. Now what downstater or member of the City of Chicago wants to turn his or her back on that? I'll tell you something, I don't like more money going to the general school aid, being from the suburbs, we don't get our fair share of that. But if you're from the City of Chicago that is a darn good deal or downstate Illinois. Thirty million dollars more in categoricals. If you're from the suburbs, you like that because categorical funding helps us. Twelve million dollars more in pre-school programs, $86 million increase in higher education. Wait a second, didn't I just say 160 more in elementary, and now I'm talking about 86 million more in higher education on top of that? Not a bad deal. This Governor has proposed it, the Senate majority has enacted it, and it is before you right now to vote on and to approve. Now, I've been here many months now in this Session, and we have talked about crime, and we have talked about criminal justice, and yet there is a $33.4 million increase in the Department of Corrections. Start up cost for 2,244 new beds, expansion of educational, vocational, and drug treatment programs, $6 million for one new juvenile boot camp with two adult work camps, and the list goes on and on and on in crime. Jobs in business, 7.5 million increase in industrial training program, $150,000 in funding certain centers in Peoria and Chicago and the creation of jobs as real in this budget. It is real. It's there. You can see it. You can read it. You can feel it. 16 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 This budget presents some very real, positive effects upon the growth of Illinois and the movement of this state in a fine economic sense. Some of you, on this side of the aisle and on the other side of the aisle, have complained about pension funding. There is an additional $6.1 million in the pension system funding. Some of you, like me, have a great interest in mental health and developmental disabilities. There is a transfer of $14 million from GRF from Public Aid's budget for the purchase of specialized services, $277.4 million for medical assistance to persons with developmental disabilities. And I will tell you the list goes on and on and on. It is a balanced budget. It is a budget that is good for Illinois and whether you come from Chicago, from the suburbs, or from downstate Illinois it is one that we can point to with pride. And yet, you come back and you tell me there are certain defects in this budget that you don't agree with. But what do I get from you? What I get is a document called FY '95 budget plan, and what is in that budget plan? Increased spending? Increased spending? Two Hundred and Five million dollars, and then when you put your increased spending plan on you want to turn away and take away money from us of $79 million, and so you want to spend more but furnish less revenues. That's what your budget plan is all about, is that an alternative? Not when you come to the good things in House Bill 12, it is not an alternative. Not when you get to a budget proposed by this Governor, enacted by the Senate majority, and sent to us and enables us to today vote on and fund the necessary, essential services of this government and to get our business done so the people of Illinois won't suffer. I'll tell you what I'm worried about, I'm not worried about all this political talk that 17 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 we're getting from both sides of the aisle or that we get from the Speaker or, yes, at times from me, I'm worried about the people of this state that need our help. I'm worried about the person that suffers under the kidney dialysis program that's funding is at risk. I'm willing...I'm worried about the less fortunate individual that needs this government's help whether it is in Medicaid funding, because they are too poor to afford their own health care, or whether it's from developmental disabilities, because they suffered from injury at birth that they had no control over. I'm worried about improving education and making this a better state, and I'm worried about jobs and the creation of those jobs. And Ladies and Gentlemen of this House, that's what this budget does; crime, education, job creation, services to the less fortunate people. It meets the needs in every single various aspect of budgeting. And Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm going to vote for this budget, and I'm going to vote for it with pride, and it's time that you do it too, to finish the state's budget. I vote 'yes' on this issue."
"Representative Currie. Representative Currie, please."
"Thank you, Speaker and Members of the House. I, too, am concerned about those people who are special charges or special responsibilities, and I would appreciate it if the Sponsor of this Motion would be willing to ask a few questions about some of the money that is missing in this budget according to the recitation we earlier heard from Representative McPike."
"The Gentleman indicates that he will yield."
"It is my understanding that in a lawsuit brought against the Department of Aging, Benson versus Blazer, we're 18 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 required to spend money on the community care program and our information suggests that under that federal court decree, this budget is missing about...about $5 million under that court order. Is that accurate?"
"If you're speaking of the amount of money contained in the budget, I don't disagree with the numbers you sighted, however..."
"Fine. Thank you. Thank you. I have another question."
"However, if I can answer your question."
"My question was..."
"If I can answer your question."
"My question is, is the money missing? Let me ask you, too, about the Hill Case...in the Hill Case..."
"Representative Currie. Representative Currie. Mr. Ryder."
"Thank you for your courtesy, Mr. Speaker. Representative, you may suggest that the funds that are there would be required by a court order. I believe in this manner that there are sufficient funds to comply with the court order based on the amount of case load anticipated, based upon a direct reading of the court order itself, based upon the past actions of the department, and the anticipated needs within that budget. To say, however, that there is an intentional disrespect or violation of that court order is absolutely and blatantly wrong, and it is only your interruption. It is certainly not mine nor is it the interruption of the Senate that passed the budget."
"Representative, I don't think I was suggesting that you were deliberately under funding this line item. I made no suggestion as to how this happened. My information from the Director of the Bureau of the Budget and the Department on Aging is that this $5 million is critical if we are to 19 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 stay in compliance with the 'Benson Decree'. Maybe the people who crafted this budget in the Senate made an error. Maybe Director Walters has not been telling us the whole truth. Maybe you know something that she hasn't shared with us. But on the basis of her information, this budget is short $5 million in the community care program for people who are, by income, eligible for those services under that federal court decree. Could we talk for a minute about the Hill case and the Department of Children and Family Services? My understanding is this budget is short a million dollars in the pregnant and parenting teen program, that was a requirement of that suit, that it is short under the BH consent decree. One point eight million in intensive therapeutic services for abused and neglected kids, an additional 1.8 for intake centers, and that there is a $54 million request from the Bureau of the Budget that did come in late, it came in on the 28th or the 29th, but a $54 million request that Director Walters told us was a requirement of the BH decree. If you add those numbers up, Mr. Ryder and Members of this chamber, you end up with something like $65 million that this budget is short. We have had a lot of rhetoric on this Floor about who's responsibility it is to craft a budget. Obviously, it's a shared responsibility between the legislative and the executive but remember, in our human services agencies, in our human services programs, it's the federal courts that by and large are calling the tune. The executive is abandoned its responsibility to provide adequate children...services to children and to the aging, and it is our responsibility to meet the terms of the federal court decrees. That is our responsibility as it Governor Edgar's. I don't see how anyone in good conscience can 20 153rd Legislative Day STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE July 5, 1994 vote 'yes' for a budget that we know is inadequate to meet the terms that the federal court has given us. I think the only proper vote today is a 'no' vote. We talked earlier about melt down in the next budget year, melt down and substantial supplementals. If we think that a 'yes' vote on House Bill 10 is a way to do our work and get out of town. I think that at this point we have to vote 'no', go back to the drawing boards and see to it that we are not under funding agencies that the courts have said we must do a better job in."
"Mr. Weaver."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, a lot of the by words that we are hearing today include the word responsibility. And I have to go back to the literally weeks and weeks of hearings that we had in the Appropriations Committee for Education and true, we did pass of f the elementary and secondary education budget, $160 million increase, and we felt very good about that. But we were not given the opportunity, although we had hearing after hearing on the other education budgets, we were not given the opportunity to even vote on those. There was no chance to vote on any Republican Appropriation Bill. Now I don't think that anybody disagrees that there's about 25 million more coming in from gaming, whether it is riverboat combined with lottery, but I find it kind of incongruous that those on the other side of the aisle are saying that money has to go to education and then take a deep breath and then lament over the fact that the other agencies like aging and drug abuse and mental health are under funded because we don't have any money. Ours is a job of taking that responsibility and allocating the money, a limited resource, we don't have an unlimited checkbook, and we 21 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 certainly don't have printing presses down in the basement where we can make money. We have to allocate those limited resources and, you know, in the few limited years I've been here, I guess I'm getting more and more amazed at the fact that even though the minority side doesn't have enough votes to pass a budget, but we're always the side of the House that has to offer the options. Why is that? Is the responsibility not of the Majority Party to at least come to the table with their offering of the budget, with their ideas and their proposals but we never see that. All we see is Republican Bills, if we are able to scream and holler enough, finally get up for a vote, and they are voted down and then that's it. I think we have to take a little bit more serious look at what our responsibilities are and as a previous speaker said, it is a shared responsibility. Let's work together and get a budget passed. The people back home don't understand why we're here. All they understand is, we don't have a budget, and they may not get paychecks. I think we need to call for a real vote, vote this out, and sit down and work with the Senate and the Governor's office and get something crafted that we can all live with and get a budget."
"Mr. Granberg."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I'd just like to correct two of the previous speakers. They talked about the pension systems being adequately funded and increase in the funding for this year, technically that is correct, but the state share has actually gone down again this year. When the legislature agreed, thanks to Senator Madigan and others, to come up with a plan to fund the pensions, since 1982 they have been under funded. We did so as a legislative solution, and we 22 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 were successful, because they had...the government has robbed the pension systems almost $15 billion in that period of time, 15 billion. We did this because we felt we had to do it to make us responsible, to make the budget fiscally sound. But again, we do this starting next year because the administration wanted to start it next year. I guess they don't particularly care next year if we are $2.3 billion in debt or 2.4. It's not that big a deal. But it is a big deal to the state employees and everyone else who relies on our pension system, and we are going to do that, and we are going to make that fiscally sound. Contrast that with today. What we are doing today, is putting our government in the same situation that pension systems have been. This...for this budget to be balanced is a joke. You know it, and I know it. Nine months funding, 10 months funding, 11 months funding, it's ridiculous. If you vote for this today, you're going to say, we're going to operate state government the same way we did with our pensions. I've heard a lot of rhetoric here on this Floor, particularly from Ladies and Gentlemen who are fiscal conservatives, how we should run government like the private sector. Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, this certainly does not do that. If you want the private sector to go out of business and borrow money constantly, continually, and not pay its bills, you will vote for this budget. I want us to be more like the private sector. I'm voting against this budget."
"Mr. Tenhouse."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. What a cruel irony. It was just a year ago today that the National Guard was called out to fight the flood. Those of us up and down the river saw the devastation that 23 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 could take place as we fought together, put aside our political differences and everyone forgot whether or not we were Republicans or Democrats, we did what had to be done. And we knew what are enemy was and what it was trying to accomplish as it broke out levee by levee, and I guess what's the most disturbing of this whole thing is, then we come back to Springfield. All of a sudden, it doesn't matter what the crisis is, we don't stand shoulder to shoulder, I mean, we're shoulder to shoulder only like we're fighting a battle and it is a war. This is absolutely ridiculous where we're coming with this. And I guess the cruelest irony of all, is to have one Representative get up and demigog (sic demigod) this issue and talk about shooting straight and the gang that couldn't shoot straight. And Representative Edley I guess what really bothers me the most is when I look at the 1991 press release when you talked about how you thought we should bond our state indebtedness to pay off our debts to our Medicaid people. Now here you are demigogging (sic demigodding), screaming at us over this side of the aisle. I find that more than reprehensible, and I'm sorry, but I think you start talking about the old West, when the old West shoot out where taking place you were hiding behind the water trough. To the Bill, Mr. Speaker. I..you know, we can look at this...this is an imperfect Bill, no one is arguing that point but I think the point, in fact, is this is a proposal that we can live with. It is a proposal that moves along continues to function. We make enough dollars that make it into education. We have dollars that are moving on to help our correction system. We help the weak and the disabled and the public aid recipients. It is a type of a program that yes, if we were going to each and 24 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 every one of us, all 118, if we were going to sit down and design a program, yeah, it's not exactly what I would want. I can demigog (sic demigod) about the issues that effect my district, but I'm not going to do that, because I think reasonably it allows us to continue the basic function of government. And I guess the second point of this whole thing is, what my real concern is, when we fought the river, we knew what we were fighting. We could talk about alternatives. We worked together. Let's see an option. Come on let's present the Bill. Let's move ahead. If we go ahead and defeat this today, then let's move on and continue to negotiate and move state government forward. I support this Motion, and I'm going to vote 'yes'."
"Mr. Morrow, please."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I was late coming in today, and I have heard comments on both side of the aisle, and I have to say some of the comments that some of my colleagues on that side of the aisle have made have sounded...made a lot of sense. They're saying, let's see your plan. And the reason why I say that is because I have been here eight years, and I've always been a SO called good Democrat, voted with the Democrats. But yet, every year when I go home at the end of Session, I find that the Democratic proposal for the budget is not too much better than the proposal offered by the other side of the aisle. And I say this to say...I say this to say...because it is true for one. I could vote for either budget. My community is going to get screwed any way, and I say this because I hear the rhetoric that we have to be Democrats, and I'm going to vote against this budget but, by God, Democrats better stand up for my community. Democrats better stand up for the minority 25 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 community, especially when our votes have been on board for the Scaffolding Act, especially when our votes have been on board for prevailing wage. But what happens, the four leaders cut a deal, and they put on a structured roll call so then my vote doesn't even count. So yes they say, well the black caucus is going to vote 'no'. We're going to pull two or three of them on board anyway, but we're going to go home. We've cut a deal between the Republicans and Democrats. But what happens to that third entity, the minorities? Oh, well we took care of public aid, you should be happy. We took care of some drug abuse programs, we should be happy. Well I tell you, the people in my community wouldn't be on drugs and wouldn't be on public aid if you would take care of them as far as economic development, as if you would take care of them as far as unions allowing them to get in the union and become tradesmen in the union. The people in my community wouldn't need public aid if they could get some of the bond work out of all of the billions of dollars of bond work that goes through this chambers and Republicans and Democrats get. But who in my community gets it? So, yes I vote 'no' on this budget but I challenge you, Mr. Speaker, when you bring out your budget proposal, I want to see what is going to be in it for my community, because that's the bottom line, and I say that to say not only on the budget but for other issues. I feel bad when the national chapter of the NCCAP calls me up saying, you have a Democratic Speaker and you can't get a Motor Voter Bill called. I think that's asinine. So, yes, you need my vote, but when the deals are cut, and my vote's not needed, where do I stand? I stand out there alone. Thank you."
"Mr. Biggins." 26 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I think there is one word that can apply to this whole budget discussion and that word is obstruction. We started out months ago, the Governor's budget message, and he mentioned that there would be a bonding program associated with this year's budget. It was known throughout all of our discussions and all of our committee meetings and a couple weeks ago the other side of the aisle says, no bonding program in this budget, obstruction number one. Then it developed, there was a huge crisis a week ago because obstruction number two came up, there wasn't enough revenue, because the numbers couldn't possibly be true. So we brought in the heads of the various agencies to meet with the Republican side, the Democratic side, the press, and the press was a key because the press had it explained to them that the numbers did make sense, the numbers were real, so obstruction number two was dropped. Now today, obstruction number three. Now there are add-ons that are coming up out of nowhere. There are cuts that were never mentioned before, and I participated in all those budget negotiations that went on. Obstruction number three is now here, new ideas, new cuts that were never mentioned before. This is not a matter of gag orders from our side of the aisle, it is obstruction orders to the other side of the aisle."
"Mr. Hannig."
"Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker and Members of the House. There is a saying in the private sector, unfortunately, that goes, good enough for government work. And quite frankly, that is not a compliment to some of the work that we do here in this chamber and to the work that the Senate has done. And I think it is very unfortunate that House 27 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 Bill 12 which the Senate has sent to us only reinforces that feeling to the public that we are willing to do something that really doesn't get the job done. That we are willing to even consider a Bill that is so flawed as this Bill that it eliminates $54 million which the Bureau of the Budget told us on June 28th that they so desperately needed in order to comply with court cases. That it has $10 million of other court decrees that are simply left out. That it has transfers that would comply with the American with Disabilities Acts and transfer those moneys to pork. That is has proposals to spend conservation 2000 money, and we never passed that Bill. The status of that Bill in the House is that it has never passed this chamber. So it seems to me that while we all would like to go home, that this Bill is not good enough, that we deserve better, and the people that we represent deserve better. It seems to me that we have to ask the Governor and the four caucus leaders to get together and put together a plan that we can pass that makes sense. Let's be honest, Ladies and Gentlemen, we are in July, we have a Democratic controlled House, a Republican controlled Senate, we need the extraordinary majority to pass any Bill, and the only Bill that is going pass out of here is one that is agreed to by both parties. So, let's forget about the rhetoric that the Republicans put together in this Bill in the Senate. They slapped this thing together in the last days. They sent it over here after we had already adjourned. They didn't have the slightest idea that the Governor would even expect for us to consider this Bill, because it is a flawed Bill. So, let's say no to this Bill, and let's go back to the bargaining table and put together a proposal that we can live with and our constituents can live with. Vote 'no'." 28 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE July 5, 1994 153rd Legislative Day
"Mr. Black."
"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. The Gentleman from Madison earlier referred to me as little Billy Black."
"That was an error. You're not little."
"Well, I'll tell you the truth, I'll tell you the truth and in all honesty. I haven't heard anybody call me that since my mother passed away on June the 20th of 1968. She was the only one that every called me Billy. It brings back a lot of fond memories, so that really doesn't bother me. That was a beautiful time and part of my life. But he acted as if somehow, I nefariously have put in a million dollars worth of pork for a project in my district, and that is his job and I bare him no ill will for that. But let me tell you the rest of the story. I convened a meeting about three years ago and many of you who were here then attended. When I caught wind of a federal memorandum called operation quick silver, which was a federal plan to reduce the size of the National Guard. I think that was wrong then, I think it's wrong now. I think National Guard units are certainly more economically feasible than active duty divisions. But as you all recall and many of you, we met bipartisan in Room 122-A with then General Holsinger, the Adjutant General, and many of you were there. That plan called for the closure of 61 Armory's in the State of Illinois. We let our displeasure be known through our Adjutant General, through the office of the Speaker, and the office of the Minority Leader, and the Office of the Governor, and we dodged most of those bullets. And at that time, two of the worst Armory's in the state, correct me if I'm wrong Joel, one was in Joel Brunsvold's district and the other was in mine. I think mine was built in 1923, I 29 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 could be wrong. And so those two armory projects moved starting that year in sinc, one Democrat, one Republican. Subsequently, my project was put on hold, and Joel's project advanced with my knowledge, consent. That was fine, and we would get to Danville's later on. I think Joel yours is now built, and mine was advancing. You call it pork if you want. It's what any of you would do, and I'm not defending it, I don't have to defend it. I'm here to represent the people in my district. We can't afford to lose that armory. We can't afford to lose our National Guard unit. That's a $1 million payroll. We have already lost an allied chemical plant that employs 80 workers. It closes down August 31st because of the Clean Air Act. They make a refrigerant gas, which those of you who agree with that, I don't, it has been outlawed by the Montreal Protocol. That refrigerant gas is used in your automobile air conditioner. So if you believe in it, disconnect your automobile air conditioner. I don't, and I won't. But those are the kinds of slaps in the face my district has taken. Am I going to roll over and let an armory unit be taken from my district? My people that send me here don't want me to. You would do the same. You call it pork, I don't. I call it, that's what I'm sent here to do. Let's talk a little bit about the budget. You know, all of you who have been married as I have been for 32 years, if my wife and I want to fight and argue, which is always unpleasant, the quickest way to do that is to talk about our household budget. We have known each other for 35 years and married for 32 and yet, we can argue and act like children when it comes to a household budget, and I don't need to tell any of you, we don't argue over $33 billion. So when we move to the budget discussion that we are in 30 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 now, of course some of you are unhappy, as I am unhappy with a portion of the budget. But what we have before us is a very reasonable budget probably, I dare say, less...it's off less than one cent per dollar from what either caucus in this House wants. We're going to argue and continue to go into overtime for that small amount of money in a $33 billion budget? Come on, we're all older than that. It has indeed...it has indeed been a very raucous Session, no one knows that any better than I. But stop and think, when David Phelps needed help to try and attract jobs to his district and to me and anybody in our area in central and downstate Illinois it is the most important reason we are here, I agree with Representative Morrow, economic development. Did David Phelps have trouble passing that Bill? I rose and spoke in favor of it. I think it passed the House, correct me if I'm wrong, unanimously. All of us were willing to help Representative Phelps and those Representatives in that part of the state do all they could to compete effectively with the State of Kentucky for that plant, and we lost. Maybe we should spend more time trying to figure out why we lost that plant to Kentucky. When Motorola needed incentives to build a big plant in Harvard, I don't even know where Harvard is, up North somewhere, I voted for that. When some of you came to me and said the Robbins incinerator was an important part of economic development in your district, and I don't know where Robbins is either, I said I agree with you, and I'll vote for you to maintain that part of economic development, if that's what you want in your community, and so I stood with Representative Murphy. Yes, we've had our differences and that is to be expected we all know that, we have all been through it, but on occasion we 31 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 can do good things but most everything we do is a compromise, the Pension Bill. Representative Granberg, I congratulate you. I congratulate Senator Madigan, and I congratulate Governor Edgar for his idea of making it a continuing appropriation. You know there is plenty of praise to go around. It is no one person's idea. We all failed miserably when Senate Bill 95 passed. We should have all been sued under a rit of mandamus forcing us to do what we said we would do when Senate Bill 95 passed in 1989. We're all...we all who were here then have some collective guilt in not meeting our pension obligations and that didn't occur overnight. It has been building for years. And hopefully, we've corrected it this year with a bipartisan effort. Last, but not least, and what I'm about to say now might get me in a little trouble with my leadership. You have a budget in front of you now, it is not perfect and there are still opportunities even if you pass it today to add and detract and do some fine tuning on the budget. I will stay here night and day, I'll bring my sleeping bag in here, and I'll sleep here. I ate my breakfast here this morning, I ate my lunch here this morning, whatever it takes, I'll sleep here on the Floor. I'd like to go home but I will stay here. I'll tell you something, this is an opportunity for each of us in the rank and file to move a budget out of this chamber, and why shouldn't we? Because if you don't do that, then I'm going to tell you what you have done and what you continue to do. You continue to vest all the power that you were elected to exercise in the hands of the Minority Leader, the Speaker of the House, the President of the Senate, and the Minority Leader of the Senate, their respective staffs who will go downstairs and meet with the Governor to craft a budget as 32 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 Representative Morrow said, that we don't see, that we don't have any input on, and then they come back someday and say here is the roll call, and pass a budget. Well let me tell you something, now you have an opportunity to pass about 85% of the budget out of here, and we take the power, and the responsibility, and the blame, if need be, for passing the budget. Let's get the discussion out of the Governor's office and out of the backroom. Why not join with me and demand that the Speaker dissolve us into a Committee of the Whole and stay here as long as it takes to negotiate and debate a budget with all of us, representing all of our districts. I've heard many of you speak out at the Rail. I've heard many of you speak in this chamber privately. You don't like the process anymore than I do. The power, right or wrong, it is the way it is, and I can live with it if that's what you want to do, but this now gives us an opportunity to exert the authority that we were elected to do, we asked to be elected to do and that is to vote on a budget. If you advocate your responsibility today, if you vote 'no', as many of you are predisposed to do, then think carefully what you have done. You've advocated your responsibility on the budget, and you have given it to one person on your side of the aisle and one person on my side of the aisle, two people across the rotunda, and the Gentleman on the second floor to craft a budget and we'll stay here while they negotiate a week, two weeks, three weeks, whatever it is. I'll stay here forever. I'll sleep on the floor if you will force the Speaker to convene a Committee of the Whole, and we will stay here, and I'll make you a bet in 36 hours, we'll have this budget done, but the first step is today. If you vote 'no', I don't ever, please, ever tell me again that you 33 153rd Legislative Day STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE July 5, 1994 want the authority to negotiate a budget for your district and the State of Illinois. Because if you vote 'no', you have advocated that responsibility, you have given it up, and you have no right to complain tomorrow or ever again. It isn't perfect. It's better than what we have. It's a start, and I intend to vote 'yes' as the people of my district sent me here to do."
"Representative Schakowsky." Schakowsky.
Representative Schakowsky: "Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. The previous speaker makes a compelling argument about process, but look at the budget that he is asking us to pass. We have debated in committee and on the Floor of the House issues that affect the frail elderly and persons with disability and the care that they get in their home. And the one thing that I have been really happy about is that, by and large, we have achieved bipartisan consensus that a good way for us to be spending our money is to provide care for these people in their homes, not only because this is we...this is where we want our loved ones, our families to be, but because it is cost effective for the State of Illinois. And low and behold, a budget comes across from the Senate that cuts $1.5 million from the home services program for persons with disabilities. This is the program where, when this Governor tried to cut off those services all together, there was a lawsuit that forced the reopening of that program, and now this budget would cut $1.5 million out of that. Not only that, in the Department on Aging, in violation of a long standing court suit, we find that another...actually over $5 million being taken out of the community care program. A program that is many times the only barrier between senior citizens and a 34 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 nursing home. It seems to me that those of us who have worked hard to pass legislation that unfortunately, fell on deaf ears in the Senate to not only support but to expand those programs have no business voting 'aye' on House Bill 12. I want to say one other thing, that I was stunned by in debate today, when I heard the Minority Leader asking us whether or not we intend to continue to just stack up money for education by applying the lottery money to...by applying the gambling money to education. You know, all of us when we go out to speak, the number one question that we get is, 'where does that lottery money go?' And then we're compelled to talk about the shell game. Well, yes all the money goes to the lottery, but then we take money out the other end and then we don't end up with a net increase. What I seem to hear being said to me from the other side of the aisle, that in this budget that we should endorse the continuation of that shell game, that that is good public policy, that we don't, in fact, have enough money and the gambling money should not go to the schools on top of what we already get, and this is what the people out there think is supposed to be happening. They think that's what we voted for, and that's what they want to happen. Now I hear, 'oh well, maybe not we don't need SO much, and we certainly don't want to be stacking up all this money for education'. I think my constituents expect that gambling money to be stacked right up for education and for that reason as well, I urge a 'no' vote on House Bill 12."
"Mr. Noland."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unless you're a green horn freshman or just off a turnip truck, you know that this Bill right here is as big a sham as yesterday's Session. Now listen, look in a crystal ball, and let's make a 35 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 prediction. We're going to cast a vote here, and guess what's going to happen? The Republicans vote 'yes', Democrats vote 'no', we go over here and the media all huddles around and the Speaker says. 'Well there is no support for the Governor's budget. I guess we will have to go back to the table'. Big whoop dee doo, we didn't know that already? I couldn't believe it yesterday, I was here all day long, 44 Democrats show, couldn't even get a quorum, Fourth of July, family activities going on, and here we are, right here. I go home, and my 66 year old father is just coming in a combine cab, harvesting wheat. He has worked all day long, and he says to me, he says, 'Duane, did you put in a good day's work?' I'm not going to lie to him, I'm embarrassed. I said, 'Are you kidding, Dad?' I said, 'We went over there on the Fourth of July, got into a screaming match, didn't even vote in for quorum.' I said, 'We wasted taxpayers dollars.' Now there is my dad, 66 years old, on a Monday harvesting wheat and his son is over here playing around politics. Now didn't that make a lot of sense? That infuriates me. It embarrasses me. It ought to embarrass everybody here too, and I will tell you folks, if you don't like what you see here go ahead and vote 'no', vote 'yes', whatever the outcome, let's settle it. Let's get down to the people's business, quit playing politics, grand standing and doing political speeches. Let's do the people's business and get it over with. Let's go."
"Mr. Hoffman. Mr. Hoffman."
"Thank you, Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I just think that a couple points need to be made. I agree with many of the things that some of the previous speakers, including the Floor Spokesman indicate. However, I think 36 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 we have to look at this budget and we have to look at some of the portions of this budget. I just did a legislative survey, and the number one comment was, where's the gambling money go, where does the lottery revenue go? So we bring a proposal to the table that says we'll put 25 additional million dollars into education. Do we need this money? Well, I'll tell you who needs this money, the Collinsville School District, who is either on or was on or still on the financial watch list, Edwardsville School District, the Triad, Highland, O'Fallon School Districts who are busting at the seams. They need this money. Do they need this $25 million? You bet they do. Do you know what they're doing in the Collinsville School District now? They're collecting coupons from a supermarket to turn them in so the supermarket will buy them computers. Now give me a break. We're moving into the 21st Century, the 21st Century, and we can't afford to buy computers for our school kids? And we're going to go home and say we're not willing to stop the lottery sham. We're not willing to give this money to school children. Do you think we need that money? Do you think the Collinsville, Edwardsville, Triad, O'Fallon, Highland School Districts need that money? I say they do."
"Mr. Olson."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I sincerely mean to thank you, because if this Concurrence Motion should get the votes, it might be my last chance to speak on this House Floor, because I am a lame duck. Also, Mr. Speaker, you're well aware and many Members of this General Assembly are aware that I'm...when it comes to politics I have a little chip on my shoulder, and I get very combative, and I like that. I like that activity, but I'm not going to do that 37 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 today. I want to address the way we should represent our constituents down here, and forgive me Leader Daniels, but the way we should represent our constituents rather than the political innuendos that go on, and I am one of the great participants in that and I love it. I'm a third generation, and I love politics. But as Representative from Madison, when he made his initial remarks after Representative Ryder's Concurrence Motion, he listed a lot of short comings, and they may well be short comings. He is a very eloquent speaker, I envy him in that respect, but his short comings they were so thick and so fast that I couldn't add them up but he totaled them for me and said, 'they're 1.6 billion'. One point six billion short fall in this budget, House Bill 12. If there is 1.6 billion short fall in this budget and if, Mr. Speaker, you would craft and introduce a budget, you're either going to have to find a way to finance that 1.6 billion and given all the positions we take and the...rhetoric and as part of the political thing this fall but given that, I don't believe any of us, not very many of us, really believe that the taxpayers of this state want a tax increase to put another 1.6 billion in a budget such as being proposed. So, what's the alternative? It's cuts, it's cuts, and it's cuts and to those of you who have SO eloquently spoken this afternoon about the cuts that are already in the budget, where are you going to get the rest of them? There was a paper put out this past week that lists where they could come from. In aging, close the elder abuse program. Corrections, don't open the new facilities, because they're not going to be staffed and don't build more. Before I move on to the rest of this list, I want to talk about corrections, and we've been vocalizing on crime all Spring. 38 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 Education, each and everyone of us in this room are sincere when we speak about assisting education in funding, and it is important. It is important. But how important is public safety? How important is public safety? Do you want the criminals in your neighborhood, even more of them, that we don't have space for, walking the alley behind your apartment or coming down the street with the window rolled down and some guns in their lap? Public safety is also important, and you're going to have to make cuts if you want to operate within the current revenues and find 1.6 billion more money. Corrections and corrections officers will suffer. Corrections officers, our prisons...I have two prisons about three mile from where I live, Ladies and Gentlemen, those Gentlemen and Ladies that work in those corrections facilities are already frightened. I think I have told the story here before that we keep one car out by our house with the key in it and a $20 bill on the steering wheel SO if somebody needs a way to get back home when he gets out of there some night, he doesn't have to knock on my door. There is a car and some gas money. The historical pres...historical preservation and conservation, I'll roll into one, you remember a few years ago when...you remember, I believe about three years ago when we had a budget that cut and cut. How many of you have got a state park or a state historic sight in your neighborhood, and how much constituent input did you get from that? I guarantee you, if you had to go make more cuts, I don't care which side of the aisle it is, if you go looking at more cuts, you're going to look at closing some parks, and that is going to ring your bell right before election time. Public Aid, local offices, I remember a couple years ago when we had I think it was, I forget, it was about $600,000 39 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 we wanted to take out of Public Aid, and that's not a lot of money, $600,000. It was going to close, not close Public...yeah, it was closing Public Aid offices it was going to take some downstate people a 75 mile trip one way to get to a Public Aid office. If you're on Public Aid, you don't have a car. Mental health, alcohol and substance abuse, the list goes on and on where there will be cuts. I'm going to go back to Senate...not excuse me, Representative Granberg, I admired Representative Granberg and my Senator, Senator Madigan, when they took the bull by the horns, and I'm sure there was some leadership input there, but on the surface it looks like they were acting on their own, and they took care of the pension system. Fellow Members, I've been here eight Sessions, and I've never seen a perfect budget yet and this one won't be perfect either, and if you come up with an alternative budget, it won't be perfect. I remember when Ted Leverenz sat where Gary Hannig's at, and I believe it was Jeff Mays was over here where Representative Hanrahan is at, and the budget debate went on on this Floor for several days, not necessarily in concurring order or...but several days the budget debate. We as Members of this Body, we as Members of this Body, had some input the weeks and weeks of committee hearings on the budget, we had meant something. We've yielded our responsibility, and it's the way of the politics and I guess I can't fault that, but I'm not really happy with it. Here this afternoon on this budget, not perfect but if you think you're going to sit here another two weeks and get a perfect budget, you're going to be disappointed. You have the opportunity here this afternoon to vote 'yes' on this Motion to concur, and I think your constituents will be happy with you. We'll end a charade 40 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 of being down here overtime, and I think there is a lot of good in the budget as presented in House Bill 12, and maybe you can craft a better one, but it is still going to have short comings, and it still may not make it out of here, because then you are going to have the problem of the Senate. Act like a Representative of your district, I ask you to vote 'yes' on this Concurrence Motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker."
"Mr. Rotello."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I would remind you that a year ago, this month we passed a budget here that was supposedly balanced, and by October of last year, there was a $700 million plus hole in that particular budget. This is my fourth budget, and it's Governor Edgar's fourth budget, and as far as I'm concerned, we have had to deal with misleading numbers every time. I would like to be able to get numbers that make sense. This year was borrow or not to borrow, dead holiday or no dead holiday, new money, no new money. There is one thing I give the Senate some credit for and that is to take us off the deadly path of the Reagan, Bush, Quail, Edgar borrow and spend policies. This get out of here mentality that many speakers have talked about, I would remind the taxpayers gets really expensive. Throwing band aids on these problems and getting out of here has led to fiscal disaster for this state and will cost you more in the end. I would remind the other side of the aisle that they attempted on several occasions to adjourn this House in the last fiscal year in June before the fiscal year ended of course, perhaps to go fishing with their Senate buddies, I don't know why. It is my opinion that the leaders should have been here, particularly the Senate 41 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 President, in early June negotiating with this House on a budget in a harmonious fashion and not wait and try and blame us for the overtime Session. This no tax increase, to tax increase Governor has this state on a downward spiral to raise revenues just to pay old bills. Sadly, the taxpayers are misled again, sadly because of it, the taxpayers will pay more in the end."
"Representative Davis."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First I would like to say that I am grateful for this opportunity, since we were held hostage over the July 4th holiday with a budget that was being rammed down our throats. As if we're not elected with the responsibility to decide on our own whether we approve or disapprove. Now, because we are elected by the people who send us here, we do have a right to object. To object to the Governor's budget, to object to the Speaker's budget, to have input, we have that right. No one should tell us, that if you don't vote for this budget, you're going to stay here over a holiday, when they themselves did not remain. I'd like to say that on April 26, 1994, Doctor Lee P. Brown, the Director of the Office of National Drug Policy, from Washington, spoke to this Body, and I will quote from one paragraph that he spoke to us and that was, 'The best anti drug program is prevention, stopping drug use before it starts'. He states that at a national level, the focus will be on prevention. Therefore, I abhor the idea of cutting $1 million for prevention services in southern seven counties and ten Chicago communities. I abhor the cut of $2 million for drug abuse and gang violence prevention, in Rockford, Chicago, East St. Louis, Peoria, Joliet and DuPage County. Areas in which there is a rising crime rate because of drug abuse. I also abhor 42 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 the idea that the consent decree will be violated by the cuts in pregnant and parenting teens programs, by the cuts in intensive therapeutic services for abused and neglected children who need psychiatric care, violating the consent decree by cutting almost $2 billion from centers that intake those children and will prevent their having to sleep on the floor. I abhor the idea of eliminating $54 million that would pay the 1994 foster care bills. And last but certainly not least, Mr. Speaker, I do believe it is time for the General Assembly to use the dollars that we gain from gambling, revenue, be it lottery or riverboat and to stop the shell game and the dishonesty to our public, and put those dollars in education. And that is the reason that I will be voting 'no' on this flim flam budget. Thank you."
"Representative Saltsman."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I respect the words of our fine Representative, Mr. Olson, for commenting on the two prisons in his district. Well, I've got three hospitals in my district that aren't getting paid. St. Francis Medical Center was down here two weeks ago, we owe them $20 million. Methodist Medical Center, two hundred feet away, the other side of Knoxville Avenue, we owe them over $12 million. The Th medical industry in my district is our second largest employer, if I'm not mistaken. We have put these people into a short fall. These bills...the helpers are and the doctors, they haven't been paid by these hospitals. We owe this money. We cannot get out of here without putting $400 million of our budget back in to pay for these past due bills. A medical surgical clinic, not even one of the hospitals, for our injured employees of the State of Illinois, injured in mental health institutions have been 43 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 going to this medical and surgical clinic for the rehabilitation. We owe them bills dating back to 1992. We owe for medical bills and worker's compensation for our employees that this agency, a small agency, haven't been paid for yet. We can not leave here without putting the $400 million in to paying these back bills, getting our federal money back for a total of $800 million, and maybe my hospital might get half of what is owed and what they have already paid their employees. And as you know, most hospital employees aren't very highly paid unless they are in the administration. And another thing, riverboat gambling. I'm a Sponsor of riverboat gambling, and I have taken a lot of heat from it. I take a lot of heat for those people that lose 50 to $70 a day on that boat but they say, 'Yeah, it goes for a good cause'. Well it does, it goes for education and there is no Bill, I don't care if I'm the lone descending vote, that is going to leave here without that $25 million being applied to education. It is not a whole lot, although we did make up the difference of the other 20 million on a short fall on the lottery. But this 25 million, I don't care if I'm the lone 'no' vote, it better be in education before these four leaders bring us back another package, or you are going to see a lot of 'no' votes over here. Let's live up to our word. Let's pay our bills. Let's not our...most of our small hospitals are broke already. Don't take the large ones down. That's right, we send our prisoners to the prison over in Representative Olson's district, but he has a lot of people that come to our area for medical treatment in our two major...in our three major facilities in Peoria. Let's get some of these people paid what we owe them before we start new projects and put new moneys out in other programs. 44 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 We've got to have $400 million out of this budget to go to pay our past back bills."
"Mr. Ryder to close."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And my thanks to those who have discussed, in length, the Bill that we have today. My head is spinning a little bit. I can imagine this afternoon those folks who do appropriations on the Democratic staff saying, well now we've got to find reasons if we're going to call this Bill, we have to find reasons why we can't vote for it. And when the Majority Leader comes out and he very impassionately discusses those reasons, my head spun a little bit. These are the folks that suggest that House Bill 12 is out of balance, and yet what is it that they want to do? Add, add, and more adds. Can you imagine the feeding frenzy that took place when those folks had a chance to say what's deficient about this budget? Every single thing is more and more additions. I can't go home without that. I can't go home without the aging stuff, can't going home without the DASA stuff, but I sure can't go home without that Chicago circulator. Yes, I'm going to fight the battle of Fourth of July to make sure that Chicago circulator is in that there budget. We finally see today, we finally see why it is that we are here, because the passion, I haven't heard it all Session, the passion from that side of the aisle, the rhetoric from that side of the aisle. We get a chance to add. We want more. We don't have more money to pay for it, but we want more. And then we have the Gentleman from Macomb with his Wild West routine. Well, let's set the record straight. If the only money if the only additional money that this General Assembly has placed into the education budget is what the lottery has produced or what riverboat gambling has 45 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 produced, if that is the only increase we're going to put into this budget, folks you gotta cut hundreds of millions of dollars from last years level. You can't even finance this year's level. I think instead of watching westerns, he was watching loony tunes, because those numbers don't add up. And perhaps it is that I don't remember history very well, but we didn't get a chance to call our Appropriations Bills before they were dead in the Senate, and when the Senate sent us a budget, it didn't get called at all until the Majority Leader said, 'Well, Maitland wants it over there, so I guess we gotta call it, and the only way we're going to call it is if you move to non concur'. And I said, 'I'm here to do business, lets keep the process rolling'. My mistake, I screwed up on that one, because I thought there was a process going, obviously there isn't. We can talk and we have about this budget, about what's wrong with it, about what's right with it. We can talk about the increases of over a billion dollars in Public Aid. We can talk about the increases in mental health, the increases in DASA. Everyone of those budgets contains an increase. And maybe they don't get as much as some folks want but we're willing to bite the bullet, to make the tough decisions so that this budget can move, our friends want more. So today we see the true colors, not red, white, and blue on July 4th but more, more, and more, that is what they want in that budget. So, let's vote today. We'll vote in a few minutes. I appreciate the chance to vote on this, but I would like to leave you with a thought. My 11 year old son loves basketball. I took him to a game one time, and he saw a guy run up and miss a lay up on an open court and he said, 'Dad, why couldn't that guy hit the lay up, he was open, it was easy?' Then 46 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 he played basketball this year and he discovered that those things aren't so easy and I said, 'Son, do not criticize if you can't do better'. Well, we have been criticized today. I sincerely hope tomorrow, Mr. Speaker, we have a chance to vote on something better. Tomorrow, I hope we have a chance to vote on the Madigan Plan. I would like to be able to have a gander at that one. Thank you."
"The question is, 'Shall the Motion to concur be adopted?' Those in favor signify by voting 'aye'; those opposed by voting 'no'. The Chair recognizes Mr. Novak, to explain his vote."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. After hearing all the deliberation on this Bill, you know our logic should be quite simple. If we have an extra pot of money available and some individuals proposed to spend it to enhance current programs or to start new programs, and if we have $1.6 billion in bills that are due hospitals, and laboratories, and pharmacies, and small businesses that are vendors of the State of Illinois, wouldn't our logic dictate to us as, pay those bills off first. My God, we're driving these people out of business. Now let's use logic. Let's vote this Bill down, come back even though we are in overtime Session and use some good rational and apply more of those surplus dollars to pay our old bills off. My God, it is a disgrace to business people in this state and people that do business with the State of Illinois. Thank you."
"Mr. Wennlund, to explain his vote."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. In three of the speeches today, I heard the continuation of the biggest sham in the history, almost the history of this House. And I heard somebody set the record 47 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 straight. A good friend of yours and mine, colleague in this House, the Dean of the House, Representative Zeke Giorgi. I heard Zeke set the record straight one day about the lottery and where the dollars went. I went over and asked Zeke afterwards I said, 'Zeke is that true, how could that be true?' He said, 'Come on back to my office'. At that time, he gave me the front page of the Sun Times from Sunday, December 2nd, 1973, and he told me to keep it in my desk and always set the record straight, so I am going to. It's got a picture of Zeke on the front page, as a matter of fact, it was the day he passed the lottery. And the article says, 'The lottery was included in the RTA compromise as a source of revenue to replace funds designated for the annual subsidy for the annual RTA'. It was never passed to fund education. It was passed as a subsidy for the RTA. Zeke told me that. I've never forgotten it, and I have kept that article every since. So, set the record straight back in your district. That's what the RTA...or that's what the lottery was for."
"Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 52 'ayes', 65 'noes'. The Motion fails. Mr. McPike in the Chair."
"Speaker Madigan."
"Mr. Speaker, the Clerk has a Resolution. Would the Clerk read the Resolution, please."
"Mr. Clerk, House Resolution 4."
"House Resolution #4, offered by Representative Granberg, resolved by the House of the Eighty-Eighth General Assembly of the State of Illinois that when the House adjourns on Tuesday, July 5, 1994, it stands adjourned until Wednesday, July 6, 1994, and when it 48 153rd Legislative Day STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE July 5, 1994 adjourns on that day, it stands adjourned until Thursday, July 7, 1994, and when it adjourns on that day, it stands adjourned until Friday, July 8, 1994, and when it adjourns on that day, it stands adjourned until Monday, July 11, 1994, and when it adjourns on that day, it stands adjourned until Tuesday, July 12, 1994, and when it adjourns on that day, it stands adjourned until Wednesday, July 13, 1994, and when it adjourns on that day, it stands adjourned until Thursday, July 14, 1994, and when it adjourns on that day, it stands adjourned until Friday, July 15, 1994, and when it adjourns on that day it stands adjourned until Monday, July 18, 1994, and when it adjourns on that day, it stands adjourned until Wednesday, July 20, 1994, and when it adjourns on that day, it stands adjourned until Friday, July 22, 1994, and when it adjourns on that day, it stands adjourned until Monday, July 25, 1994, and when it adjourns on that day, it stands adjourned until Wednesday July 27, 1994, and when it adjourns on that day, it stands adjourned until Friday, July 29, 1994."
"Speaker Madigan."
"Mr. Speaker, this Resolution, if adopted by the House, would put the House relative to the Special Session in the same posture as the Senate. It would permit us to leave Springfield but return if appropriate, and I would move for the adoption of the Resolution."
"Representative Black on the Motion."
"Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor of the Motion yield?"
"Yes."
"I don't have a copy of the Resolution. I think we're doing much better than we did a week ago, because I think I understand this one, and there doesn't seem to be two 49 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 Motions on the Floor, but let me make sure I'm correct. This only deals with the Special Session, correct?"
"That's correct."
"And we will be in Perfunctory Session, if I could follow what the Clerk was saying, every other day and that we'll come back at the call of the Chair, correct?"
"That's correct."
"Will there be a following Resolution dealing with any subject matter on a Regular Session, perhaps Conference Committee Reports, et cetera.?"
"No. The...a similar Resolution has been adopted in the Regular Session."
"Was that...that was the one we did a week ago?"
"Yes. Yes."
"Okay. Thank you you very much."
"Representative Daniels."
"Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, let's make sure we understand what we're doing. I listened to several speeches talking about the budget process and how everyone want to be part of it. The exact speech that Representative Black gave where you're letting go, abdicating, releasing your ability to participate in this process is exactly what happens if this Resolution for adjournment is adopted, because what the proposal is going to be, is that we go into Perfunctory Session in the Special Session. You all go home. Now, I'll stay. I don't have a problem with that. That's my job. That's why people elected me, and that's why my Members elected me as a Minority Leader. But you're going to go home, and you're on that side of the aisle giving all of your responsibility to one person again to draw your budget. We don't know if he wants to add, cut, subtract, multiply, divide, or 50 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 whatever it is he wants to do with that budget, cause as you know, today, the argument on this Floor was the defects of House Bill 12, which called for $150 million more in spending, after he proposed yesterday, and the day before, and the day before 136 more in cuts. So, now we're going to spend today. Yesterday, we were cutting. What happens tomorrow? You adopt this Adjournment Resolution, you're going home. But I'll tell you something, I'm gonna stay. I think it's a mistake. I think we ought to stay here. We ought to do our work. We ought to be in a Committee of the Whole. We ought to do the business of the people of Illinois and not advocate our responsibility to any one person or group of people. My Members want to work. Now, we can't stop this Resolution by ourselves. We need your help to stop the Resolution. Speak up. Speak clearly. Vote against this Adjournment Resolution, and stay here with us and work and, Mr. Speaker, I want a roll call on this Motion for adjournment, and I'm joined with other Members in the House insisting on a roll call, because we want to stay here and get the people's business done."
"We'll have a roll call. Representative Tim Johnson." Johnson, Tim.: "I guess I'm not really sure I understand, Mr. Speaker, and the presenter of the Motion. Does that mean we're going to leave here now and come back when you ask us to and state employees aren't getting paid, and we aren't...we haven't passed a budget, or does that mean we're coming in tomorrow? I'm not sure I understand."
"Mr. Speaker."
"Mr. Speaker, let me read my letter to the Governor as of today." Johnson,
"I just wanted to know if we're going to be here 51 153rd Legislative Day STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE July 5, 1994 tomorrow to try to pay the state employees and adopt a budget or whether we're not."
"Just a minute, Mr. Johnson. Let the Speaker answer, please."
"I thought that my letter would be responsive to your question, Mr. Johnson. 'In recent days, I have become increasing troubled by the double standard that you've apparently adopted with respect to two chambers of the Illinois General Assembly. As you know, President Philip and I developed a joint schedule on June 30th for the two chambers as we worked toward a budget compromise for FY '95. Just before midnight on June 30th, you unilaterally issued a proclamation which pre-empted that legislative agreement and called for a Special Session of the Illinois House and the Illinois Senate. While the Illinois House has scheduled Session days for July 1 thru 4, the Illinois Senate departed on July 2 and has not returned to Springfield. In order that both chambers are treated equally, it is my belief that the Illinois House should adopt the same posture. Unless you can offer some plausible explanation to the contrary, I plan to enact this policy on July 5, 1994, after the scheduled Floor Session is concluded. Please let me assure you that I will remain ready to meet with you and the other Legislative Leaders to resolve the FY '95 budget. Furthermore, I will ask my budget negotiators to remain available for the same purpose. With kindest personal regards, I remain, Michael J. Madigan.'"
"Mr. Johnson." Johnson, Tim.: "Well, I'm not sure...I appreciate his reading the letter. I could read then the response that I believe Governor Edgar penned to that letter that was just read by 52 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day the Speaker. July 5, 1994 'Dear Mr. Speaker, in your letter today, you asked for a plausible explanation of why the Senate is not in Special Session. The explanation is this: the Senate has approved a budget. The House has not done so. You rejected the budget I submitted in March. You then rejected my compromise budget, and you refused to concur with the Senate approved budget. You have not approved an alternative to that budget and, therefore, I believe you should remain in Special Session until you approve a budget. I look forward to working with you towards a responsible solution to this matter.' That's the Governor's response, and I believe, Mr. Speaker, you received that response as dated July 5, which is today I receive...I believe you received that response today from the Governor. If I'm incorrect, you can correct me. As Leader Daniels says and as the Governor says and as the people in the real world, and Springfield is not the real world, are saying, we need to adjourn this Session by passing a budget. We need to pay the people who are working for the State of Illinois, whether it's Eastern Illinois University or the University of Illinois or the highway workers, because they're working for a living, and they have to make their rent payments, and they have to make their grocery payments, and we have to...we have to stop the nonsense of being here year, after year, after year, after year, at the call of one or two people who run this entire process. I'm prepared as Representative Daniels is and, I think, everybody on this side of the aisle is to take another vote on Senate...on House Bill 12 to continue to work to try to solve this problem tonight. We'll adjourn tonight, pass a budget, pay the state employees, meet the priorities of Illinois, and be done 53 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 with this, rather than simply be back at the whim of...of whom knows who. I think the response of the Governor is right on point. It addresses the issues that the Speaker raised in his letter to the Governor as of yesterday or today, and I simply don't understand this process. I guess my other question to the Speaker would be, how will we know when we're supposed to come back? I mean are, we going to get...are you going to call us or are we...state police going to come and get us, or are we supposed to stay here, or what's the deal? While the people of Illinois, and I can tell you, they are doing in louder and louder choruses are outraged by this impasse...it's not an impasse. It's a one person impasse. They are outraged at what's going on down here, and it's not our fault. I...want to know how we're suppose know when we're supposed to come back. Are you going to tell us, or who is going to tell us?"
"Further discussion? Representative Currie."
"Thank you, Speaker and Members of the House. I rise in support of the Resolution. I expect that the Governor wrote his letter before he knew that the House was going to reject, pretty resoundingly, the flawed budget sent to us by the Senate. The Governor, I expect, at this point has two options. He can either recognize that the budget negotiations have to continue before it makes sense for all Legislators to stay here in Springfield to the tune of $81 a day paid for by the taxpayers, or perhaps he'd like to call the Senate back into Session too, since clearly they have not finished their work. They passed us a budget, but we said no to that budget. There is no budget. It seems, to me, legitimate for us to decide individually to stay here in Springfield to offer our help to the budget negotiators without charging the taxpayers $81 a day, if 54 153rd Legislative Day STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE July 5, 1994 that's our wish. It seems to me appropriate for the Governor to understand that the House and the Senate are co-equal chambers. That in the real world, there is no budget that's passed, because the budget that the Senate approved has been rejected here. So, either we should spend our days in Springfield, costing the taxpayers $81 a crack, or we should adopt this Resolution and either choose individually to hang around the Capitol corridors adding our voices to the budget negotiations or return to our districts and get on with our own individual work. This Resolution is fair. It recognizes the co-equal nature of these two legislative chambers, and it recognizes that the budget that the Senate pass us is dead."
"Representative Brunsvold."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I've been here 12 years now, and neither House, whether it was a Democratic controlled Senate and a Democratic controlled House, of the 10 years in the 80's, never did pass a budget really unilaterally. We always worked together to try to get a budget, and we always knew it was going to have to be an agreement. For the Senate to pass a budget to us and say, 'this is it', is not working together. It's just not working together. We did not have input into that budget. We did not have our wishes considered in that budget. Here it is, take it or leave it. Well, I'm not going to do that. My voters didn't send me down here to say, 'leave it'. So, I'm going to stand with the Speaker, and say we have got issues that need to be considered. We meet in caucus with the Speaker. The Minority Leader says that, you know, you want to put our wishes in the hands of the Speaker. Well, yes we do. We met with the Speaker. He knows our wishes. He knows where we stand on the budget. So, this is not the Speaker 55 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 standing up. This is the Democratic side of the aisle standing up and saying, we support what the Speaker will do when he meets with the Leaders and considers a budget. So, I stand in support of the Resolution that we send the Leaders back to the table and construct a budget that we can all be part of. Thank you."
"Representative Mulligan."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During the debate on the budget, I hesitated about speaking, but I will tell you, this morning I called home, I did not go home to the parades, and I asked my aide what she had heard and what she thought was going on. You know, we get pretty involved here with the process, and we're into politics, and we read everything, and we think it's really important. What she said to me is, 'the people I hear at home, think you're all nuts'. You know, it's not just one side or the other or who scored the last goal in the match that we're having here on the budget. They think we're all crazy. We ought to get the job done and go home. Now, I've got to tell you, the freshmen here, and they're quite a large number, are increasingly unhappy, and no one speaks about it. Representative Morrow, who, he and I have discussed different issues and sometimes and we agree and sometimes we don't, pointed out the process that he felt that the Minority caucus that...perhaps he's speaking for was not being represented. Sometimes the women feel they're not being represented, and sometimes the freshmen feel that they're really disgusted with the process and that we're cut out. I don't think we should go home. I think we should stay here. I think we should be included. I think we should get the job done, and I should think we should stop talking about all this baloney that we've heard even 56 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 though some of the Representatives had very good things to say, and I think we ought to get this done, and we ought to have some input, and we ought to stop playing these games that are all geared around the gubernatorial race. I've heard all kinds of different plans. Some of them were very good, some of them were rejected out of hand about paying bills and how we're not doing it. When we talked about the debt restructure, and when we sat there on medicaid, there was never a moment in my mind that I felt that that was going to go ahead, and we knew that months ago. Why didn't we have another budget. Why aren't we included, and why aren't we getting this done. I'm tired of going home to my people and having them tell me what a pack of idiots they think we all are, whether you're Democrat or Republican for not getting this done, and the more you put us under, the more people that are the freshmen that are going to return next year, are going to demand a change of this process and all the Leaders."
"Representative Skinner."
"There was a time when Members of the Appropriations Committee actually took votes on Bills in Committees. That didn't happen in my Appropriations Committee this year. You know, there's going to be a little referendum this fall, and it's not worded the way it ought to be. The term limit referendum ought to be on Speakers of the House. Surely, eight years is enough. Mike, you've had your eight years. It's time to retire. Now, since it's not written that way...since it's not written that way, what it means is, we'll all get a chance to retire in eight years. All of us."
"Representative Hughes. All right, give the Lady some attention, please." 57 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994
"I think it is a complete travesty on the whole process here that it has taken us until July 5th to take a vote that we all knew the outcome of on June 30th. Five days to have that vote. If the Senate doesn't have the message from the other side of the aisle that the budgeting process isn't done, how more clearly could that have been sent to have had this vote on June 30th or July 1st, not on July 5th. We have wasted all this time. We've been here every day, ready to vote. Five days of taxpayer's money and political gamesmanship. Let's stay here now that the vote is here, let's get Senator Philip back down here and get the job done today."
"Representative Olson. Mr. Olson."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would Speaker Madigan yield for a question?"
"Yes. He will."
"Speaker Madigan, I have, really, a three part question. What...had you considered a nonconcurrence Motion, and if so or not so, why?"
"Mr. Olson, could you elaborate that question?"
"We had a concurrence Motion on House Bill 12. Had you considered a nonconcurrence Motion so that, that would go to Conference Committee, and if so or not so, what was your reasoning?"
"You see, Mr. Olson, it would be my understanding that, that would be the prerogative of Mr. Ryder."
"But...and I guess maybe it's not a fair question, Mr. Speaker, but I'm saying before Mr. Ryder spoke, had you considered a nonconcurrence, so that it could get into the Conference Committee and be in the hands of the General Assembly rather than the Leadership?"
"Mr. Olson, I think the best answer to your question 58 153rd Legislative Day STATE OF ILLINOIS. 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE July 5, 1994 would be, I would not object to a Motion to nonconcur."
"Okay. Then also, since we have considered a budget here today, and it was almost a party line vote, I believe two crossed over to our side, do you intend to present a budget that might be considered your budget?"
"Mr. Olson, concerning the budget, I have stated consistently that I have certain goals relative to the budget. Number one, I am one of those who want to end the shell game on the use of lottery money for education. I think that with this newfound gambling money, all of the newfound gambling money should be dedicated to education, no doubt about it. Number two, I think that we should maximize the payment of our old bills. Now, speakers today in the budget debate set out the shortfall that has been acknowledged by the Bureau of the Budget, not for the budget that we're considering now, but for the next budget. And so, as we continue on as Members of the General Assembly, we are looking at more and more debt, and I would simply suggest that it would behoove all of us right now to pay as many old bills as possible. Those are the points that I have advocated to the Governor. I've done that publicly, and I will continue to do that throughout the consideration of a budget, and as always, I am prepared to meet with the Governor and work with the Governor to draft a balanced budget."
"I understand your remarks very well, and it's a position that you should take from your duties in this chamber, but my question simply was, do you intend to propose a budget that we might study and review and then vote on? Just yes or no, Mr. Speaker, I can..."
"We have worked with everybody concerning budget plans, Mr. Olson. We have worked with everybody." 59 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994
"I believe I'm hearing a no, thank you, on that one. Now, Representative Johnson inquired and did not get an answer, do you know when we may be coming back to Springfield, so everyone can plan their life?"
"I would hope as soon as possible."
"I'd like to see you tomorrow. Thank you."
"Mr. Ryder."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to address, particularly, the remarks of the Lady from the City of Chicago. There is a big difference between what it is that the Governor has done and what it is that the Senate has done, with what it is that we have not done. They passed a budget out of the Senate. You didn't like it. The Governor proposed a budget. You didn't like it. Where's yours? Until this House passes a budget, we've got work to do. Don't complain that the Senate is not in. They passed a budget. Where's your budget? Where is it? How sanctimonious to suggest, well, we killed that, 'Doctor No', and what's your next option? Another budget? We'll kill it too. What's your next option? Not good enough, keep trying. Where is your budget? Put it on the board. Hit the numbers. Send it to the Senate. Make them come back. But until you pass a budget, you are the ones that are failing in your job. We put it up. You didn't like it. Put up or shut up."
"Mr. Lang."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. I find it really interesting that Members on this...the other side of the aisle are talking about what we must do in the House and why the Senate left. Let me tell you something, the Senate had no business leaving this city. And the reason the Senate had no business leaving this city is that, this is not a House budget or a Senate budget. 60 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 It's a budget for the entire State of Illinois. The Governor calls us into Special Session, all of us, both chambers, both sides of the aisle, to work on a budget for the entire State of Illinois, not the House and not the Senate. And so, they had no business leaving town. We are trying to get something done. Whether we get it done or not is a separate issue, but they had no business leaving town. Now, based on the response to Speaker Madigan's letter that Mr. Johnson read from the Governor that the Senate has passed their budget, and somehow that magically allows them to leave town and leave their responsibilities behind, let me say that I think we should keep this debate going for a while, because based on that comment from the Governor of this state, I would expect him to come breathlessly running down this aisle and say, 'wait, wait, don't leave, stop the presses, because I'm calling the Senate back, because they belong in this town, where the House of Representatives is, to do the work we were elected to do in the House of Representatives'. Now, I hope the Governor has his speaker on on the second floor, because we'll wait. We'll wait. Come on in, Governor. The door is open. The doorkeeper will let you in without a pass. We are waiting for you to come to tell us that you have called the Marines back. Bring the Marines back. Call in the Senate."
"Mr. Wennlund."
"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was thinking there for a while that Senator...or Representative Flinn was absent. So, in light of that, I'll move the previous question."
"Just hold on a minute. What did you say, Mr. Wennlund."
"I thought perhaps Monroe Flinn was absent. So, with 61 153rd Legislative Day STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE July 5, 1994 that in mind, I'd move the previous question."
"No. Thank you. The question is, 'Shall the previous question be put?' All in favor say 'aye'; opposed, 'no'. The 'ayes' have it. The previous question is put. The question is, 'Shall House Resolution #4 be adopted?' All in favor vote 'aye'; opposed vote 'no'. Have all voted? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? The Clerk will take the record. This Motion requires a simple majority. On this Motion, there are 61 'ayes' and 55 'nos', and the Resolution is adopted. We are prepared to adjourn. Mr...any announcements? Speaker Madigan."
"Mr. Speaker, immediately there will be a Democratic caucus. Immediately, a Democratic caucus in Room 114."
"The same thing, Mr. Leitch?"
"Room 118."
"All right, there will be a Republican caucus immediately in Room 118. There will be a Democratic caucus immediately in Room 114. Representative Granberg moves that Sess...Special Session #2 stands adjourned...until...until Wednesday, July 6. All those in favor say 'aye'; opposed, 'no'. The 'ayes' have it. The Second Special Session stands adjourned. The Regular Session will come to order. The Attendance Roll Call for the Second Special Session will be used as the Attendance Roll call for the Regular Session. Representative Granberg now moves that the regular Session stands adjourned until tomorrow...until... July 6. All in favor say 'aye'; opposed, 'no'. The 'ayes' have it, and the House stands adjourned. There is no time...it's...it's just a standing time. What will happen was (sic - is) that some Member will show up and bring us into a Session and adjourn us 62 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 153rd Legislative Day July 5, 1994 until the next day, just like we did last year during the Chicago school situation." 63 REPORT: TIFLDAY PAGE: 001 STATE OF ILLINOIS 88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DAILY TRANSCRIPTION OF DEBATE INDEX JULY 05, 1994 94/10/19 14:54:20 HB-0012 CONCURRENCE PAGE 2 HR-0004 ADOPTED PAGE 62 HR-0004 RESOLUTION OFFERED PAGE 48 SUBJECT MATTER HOUSE TO ORDER SPEAKER MCPIKE PAGE 1 PRAYER REPRESENTATIVE SHEEHY PAGE 1 PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE PAGE 1 ROLL CALL ATTENDANCE PAGE 1 COMMITTEE REPORT PAGE 2 SPEAKER MADIGAN IN THE CHAIR PAGE 2 REPRESENTATIVE MCPIKE IN THE CHAIR PAGE 48 HOUSE ADJOURNED PAGE 63