“The House shall come to order. The Members shall be in their chairs. We ask you to turn off cell phones, pagers, computers. We ask the guests in the gallery to rise and join us for the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance. We shall be led in prayer today by Pastor John Parton of the Cornerstone Worship Center in Raleigh. Pastor Parton is the guest of Representative Phelps.”
“Let us pray. Our Father, we come to You this morning, we thank You for Your blessings upon us and we pray God that You would lead this great Body, Father, as we make decisions. Father, guide us by Your wisdom and Your knowledge, that our character and our integrity, Father, stand as a guidepost for us. Lead us, direct us, guide us. Bless You, Lord, we thank You for Your many blessings upon us. Guide us with Your light in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
“We shall be led in the Pledge of Allegiance by Representative Tenhouse.”
“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 Currie.”
“Thank you, Speaker. Please let the record reflect that we have no excused absences to report today.”
“Mr. Bost.” 09300060.doc 1 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Please let the record reflect that Representative Stephens is excused today.”
“The Clerk shall take the record. There being 117 Members responding to the Attendance Roll Call, there is a quorum present. Mr. Clerk.”
Clerk Rossi: “Committee Reports. Representative Lang, Chairperson for the Committee on Gaming, to which the following measure/s was/were referred, action taken on Friday, May 16, 2003, reported the same back with the following recommendation/s: 'do pass as amended Short Debate' House Bill 142 and House Bill 144. Representative Holbrook, Chairperson from the Committee on Environment & Energy, to which the following measure/s was/were referred, action taken on Friday, May 16, 2003, reported the same back with the following recommendation/s: 'be adopted' Floor Amendment #3 to Senate Bill 1379. Representative McCarthy, Chairperson from the Committee on Higher Education, to which the following measure/s was/were referred, action taken on Friday, May 16, 2003, reported the same back with the following recommendation/s: 'do pass as amended Short Debate' Senate Bill 748. Representative Fritchey, Chairperson from the Committee on Judiciary I-Civil Law, to which the following measure/s was/were referred, action taken on Friday, May 16, 2003, reported the same back with the following recommendation/s: 'be adopted' Floor Amendment #2 to Senate Bill 947.”
“Chair recognizes Mr. Schmitz.” 09300060.doc 2 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We would request a Republican Caucus in Room 118 immediately.”
“There is a request for a Republican Caucus. Republicans will go to caucus. The plan is that upon our return we will consider the remaining budget Bills. So, the entire day will be devoted to the appropriation Bills that remain on the Calendar. Mr. Schmitz, would you have any idea how long you’ll be? Mr. Brady.”
“Half hour… to an hour.”
Speaker Madigan: “One half hour, you said? Well, please proceed, we’ll be waiting for you. The House shall come to order. Is Representative Slone in the chamber? Representative Slone. For what purpose does Mr. Morrow seek recognition? Charles Morrow, your light is on.”
“No, I’m sorry, Mr. Speaker, I didn’t have my light on.”
“Could you help us find Representative Slone? Mr. Morrow, would you like to call some appropriation Bills? So, the first Bill, Mr. Morrow, would be House Bill… rather, yes, House Bill 3741. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3741, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 3741 is the budget of the East St. Louis Financial Advisory Authority. The authority will receive an appropriation of $253,600 in GRF. The 09300060.doc 3 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 appropriation is not changed from the Governor’s proposal. Be glad to answer any questions.”
“Chair recognizes Mr. Parke.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanna bring to the attention of the Body that we are now back into the appropriations legislations, that the Members need to be on the floor and prepared to listen to the debate on this legislation. This is very important and I might remind the Body that this is refreshing for us to have individual Bills to vote for and discuss on the floor of the House. This is what a lot of us have been asking to have rather than one or two or three major Bills and you have to vote for everything. So, I think because we’ve asked for it to be broken down into individual line items, I think everybody has the responsibility to sit and listen to the discussion and then make the decision based on what they think is good public policy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.”
“Mr. Morrow has moved for the passage of the Bill. Those in favor signify by voting ‘yes’; those opposed by voting ‘no’. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Has Mr. Froehlich voted? And Mr. Sacia. The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 75 people voting ‘yes’, 42 people voting ‘no’. This Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3749, Mr. Morrow. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3749, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.” 09300060.doc 4 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Mr. Morrow.”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 3749 is the budget from the Industrial Commission. The total FY04 request is $13,745,800; $4,022,600 is in GRF, $9,723,200 are other state funds. No change from the Governor’s recommended level. I’ll be glad to answer any questions.”
“The Gentleman moves for the passage of the Bill. The Chair recognizes Representative Osmond.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor yields.”
“In the Governor’s address, he stated that he was going to fund the Industrial Commission by requiring employers who lose in work comp cases to cover court costs currently by the state… currently paid by the state. What court costs are in this?”
“This would… the court costs would be covered by 1.5 percent administrative fee placed on employers.”
“Representative, I don’t believe that this work comp is heard in a court. I don’t believe there’s any court costs to it, that this is an arbitration setup to settle claims.”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Osmond, it’s not court costs, it’s arbitration fees. It’s not court fees, it’s arbitrations fees.”
“All right. What I guess I need explanation… I… as I did in committee, I asked the question, if company ‘A’ has a million dollars worth of paid claims from last year, the 09300060.doc 5 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 percentage is going to put… be 1.5 percent on the claims from the previous year.”
“That’s correct.”
“Therefore, this is going to be a tax that will have to be paid by insurance companies doing business in the State of Illinois that paid those claims.”
“It’s an indirect tax on employers who owe workers’ compensation.”
“You are taxing insurance companies not employers.”
“That’s correct, unless the employer is self-insured.”
“All right. Now what happens to the City of Chicago who is self-insured? They are going to have to pay a 1.5 percent tax on claims paid from the previous year. Is that correct?”
“That is correct.”
“Then we… everybody in this Body better pay attention to this Bill, because you are putting a tax on self-insured companies… a self-insured state… I’m sorry, City of Chicago, school districts, municipalities, anything that is self-insured is going to be taxed 1.5 percent of the claims paid. This is wrong for business. I’ve heard you many, many times in committee ask for more jobs. This is not going to bring more jobs to Illinois, this is going to turn companies away from doing business in this state.”
“Well, Representative Osmond, what we’re… what we’re trying to do here with House Bill 3749 is done in 44 other states.” 09300060.doc 6 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Could you tell me the names of those… or the names of those states that have this?”
“We… we could get you a list. I… right off the bat, I don’t have the states, but could get… we can provide you with that information, Representative Osmond.”
“Does Wisconsin have this?”
“Pardon me?”
“Does Wisconsin have this?”
“We don’t know, Representative, we’ll have to get that back to you. Now, you gotta understand, Representative Osmond, there is no fee increase in this House Bill. This…”
“The budget is…”
“This is just the… this is… this is just the appropriation.”
“The budget is based on this.”
“Well… but if… but if the fee’s not there then… then… then this budget is gonna have to be re… re… fine-tuned again.”
“When the director… the new director appeared at our meeting, we asked him as a committee how he would spend the approximate $27 million when his budget right now, I believe, is 13 million. He addressed the question by answering that he was going to hire ten more hearing officers at a salary of approximately a hundred and nine thousand dollars each. What happens to the surplus from the time that they hire those ten hearing officers, which 09300060.doc 7 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 is a million dollars, what happens to all the rest of the millions that are going to brought in by this tax?”
“Representative Osmond, they need the rest of that money to cover next year’s appropriation, to cover the fee assessment, ‘cause it’s an annual assessment.”
“Twenty-seven million, when they have a budget today of thirteen million and they’re gonna spend a million on hiring new people. What happens to that money? Does it go back into the General Fund if they have a surplus?”
“It remains in that fund… it remains in that fund, Representative.”
“All right. Now, I guess I’m a little confused again and I need to ask you this question. When you hire ten new hearing officers, and I understand that the Industrial Commission has a backlog, these ten new hearing officers are gonna come forth and they’re going to clear up the backlog, hopefully. We will probably have less claims because they won’t be writing any work comp insurance when they have a fee… a tax of 1.5 percent. What happens next year, do you lay off ten hearing officers?”
“I think we’ll have to cross that road when we get to it, Representative.”
“What is the penalty for an insurance company if they do not pay this fee?”
“We… we don’t know, there’s no fee increase in this Bill. What… what…”
“No, it’s a tax, I stand corrected. It is a tax. What happens if they don’t pay the tax?” 09300060.doc 8 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Representative, I think that argument is for when that Bill comes before us.”
“Who is…”
“Right now, this is just dealing with the appropriation, this is not dealing with the Governor’s proposed fee or anything. This is… this is just dealing with the appropriation. So, when the Governor presents that Bill to put the 1.5 percent assessment on there then some of your… some of your questions that you’re asking would be valid on that Bill, but this right now is just dealing with the appropriation to the Industrial Commission.”
“And I… and I understand that, but ya know what, this is the first time that this has ever come forth to this Body in any way, shape, or form and we didn’t know how to handle it. So, I, as a freshman, am asking the questions so I can better understand how we’re gonna vote for this appropriation.”
“Well, Representative, I wish I had the answers to your question, I’m just the Appropriation Chairman. I really don’t have a whole… a grasp of the substantive issue that you’re trying to get an answer to. Maybe you need it… you need to have some further discussions with the liaison or the director of the Industrial Commission.”
“I agree, but right now we have to vote on this. I urge every Member to look at this seriously. This is a tax, a tax on workman’s compensation. We need to look at this and we need to put a ‘no’ vote on this. This is a tax 09300060.doc 9 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 on the City of Chicago, this is a tax on education, this is a tax any way you look at it. Thank you.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, this Bill is on the Order of Standard Debate. We’ve had one person for the Bill, one person in response. The Chair will recognize Mr. Brady. For five minutes, Mr. Brady.”
“Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor yields.”
“To the Bill. Just to echo Representative Osmond’s comments. I hope everyone in the chamber is listening to what this debate is truly about, Ladies and Gentlemen, my colleagues. Simply that you understand about this tax, call it what you will, it’s a tax. It’s a bad idea for a couple of reasons. Number one, insurance premiums are going to increase significantly under this proposal when it comes to workers’ comp. Insurance carriers are gonna leave this state that presently do business in workers’ comp, and self-insurers, maybe the most important, so I hope you’re listening, the self-insurers will bear an inordinate share of this tax. For those of you who don’t understand, self-insurers, that does mean the City of Chicago, that means hundreds of your school districts. Counties and municipalities all across this state are going to bear the brunt of this. So, I hope that you look at this very seriously before you make your vote and as Representative said, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, there will be an opportunity maybe to deal with this later. But 09300060.doc 10 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 right now, this is very, very important that we’re talking about this 1.5 percent, we’re gonna take a budget of $10.7 million in the workers’ comp system, we’re gonna boost that budget to $27 million as anticipated. That’s quite a large jump. And we’re gonna do it with a tax primarily on the back of the insurers and on the backs of the self-insurers in this state. We’re gonna drive more business out of this state, just the opposite thing that I know all the Representatives in this chamber do not want to see happen. I ask for a ‘no’ vote. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, the question is, ‘Shall this Bill pass?’ Those in favor signify by… You think it’ll help or hurt? Mr. Morrow. Mr. Morrow.”
“Mr. Speaker, all my comments help. The concerns that were addressed by two of the previous Members that talked against the Bill are not valid on this appropriation Bill. The Governor has proposed to do something with the budget of the Industrial Commission, but he has not drafted a Bill, there’s not a Sponsor of the Bill. So, some of the questions that they’ve asked about this 1.5 percent fee assessment aren’t valid on House Bill 3749. Now, there might be some changes that might have to be made to this budget based on whether that Bill is ever drafted, whether that Bill is favorably voted upon or unfavorably voted upon by this Body. All this Bill does is address the appropriation and the reve… not the revenue but what is gonna be spent in the… in the budget of the Industrial Commission. So, I urge ‘green’ votes on House Bill 3749.” 09300060.doc 11 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“The Gentleman moves for the passage of the Bill. Mr. Black.”
“Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I had no intention of speaking on the Bill, I think Representative Osmond covered it very well, but in the closure there was a statement made that I take exception to. I don’t know how the analysis reads on the Democrat side of the aisle, but it’s very clear on our side of the aisle and I’m in agreement with the analysis. It clearly states that this appropriation Bill incorporates the Governor’s proposed one and a half percent assessment on benefits paid under the workers’ compensation system which is expected to generate the appropriated $9.7 million for FY04 and $27 million annually. Then at the end and Mr… the Representative is correct, at the end of the analysis it also clearly states that implementation of the one and a half percent assessment must be brought about by legislative action. I don’t know how you can separate the question. If you vote for the appropriation, which is based on the assessment, then I would assume you have locked yourself in to voting for the assessment increase when the legislation, the trailer Bill follows. One of my dear friends, who I served with here years ago, a Democrat who has subsequently retired, was a Democrat when they passed the workers’ comp Bill here during Governor Walker’s administration and he owned a business. He said the day he retired that the one ‘no’ vote he made as a Democrat and the only ‘no’ vote that a Democrat made on the workers’ comp Bill, he said and I 09300060.doc 12 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 quote as best I can remember, he said, ‘we went from driving a pretty darn good Chevrolet to driving the most expensive Cadillac we could buy.’ The workers’ comp system in Illinois is not competitive with any of our border states. This appropriations Bill and the necessary trailer Bill will simply exacerbate that situation. We’ve already lost 40 thousand industrial jobs in the last year, we can’t afford to lose another 40. This is worth a ‘no’ vote.”
“Once again, the question is, ‘Shall this Bill pass?’ Those in favor vote ‘yes’; those opposed vote ‘no’. Is… The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 64 ‘ayes’, and 52 ‘noes’. This Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Senate… House Bill 3750, Mr. Morrow. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3750, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 3750 is the budget for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. The total FY04 budget request is $234,937,600; $7,537,200 is from GRF, $227,400,400 is from other state and federal funds. And this represents no change from the Governor’s recommended level. Be glad to answer any questions.”
“Gentleman moves for the passage of the Bill. The question is, ‘Shall this Bill pass?’ Those in favor signify by voting ‘yes’; those opposed by voting ‘no’. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have 09300060.doc 13 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 all voted who wish? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 105 people voting ‘yes’, 11 people voting ‘no’. This Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. For what purpose does Mr. Osterman seek recognition?”
“Point of personal privilege, Mr. Speaker.”
“State your point.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, I’d like to acknowledge and give a warm welcome to members of the CAPS program from the City of Chicago and members of the Chicago Police Department that are down here today to visit with us all. These are leaders that work in their communities day in and day out trying to make Chicago a safer place to live for all the individuals who live there. Please give ‘em a welcome.”
“Mr. Hassert.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Point of personal privilege.”
“State your point.”
“I’d like to welcome the fifth grade class from Pioneer School. The fifth grade class from Pioneer School in Bolingbrook and their parents. They’re just getting up in the balcony right in here, there’s about a hundred of ‘em. If you could just give them a warm welcome.”
“House Bill 3752. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3752, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Third Reading… read… Mr. Morrow.” 09300060.doc 14 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 3752… excuse me, is the budget for the Law Enforcement Training Standards Board. The total FY04 budget request is $968,100 from other funds. Represents no change from the Governor’s recommended level. Be glad to answer any questions.”
“Mr. Delgado.”
“Mr. Speaker, I’m s… I’m rising on a point of personal privilege.”
“Not during the consideration of a Bill.”
“I understand.”
“But we’ll be with you shortly. The question is, ‘Shall this Bill pass?’ Those in favor signify by voting ‘yes’; those opposed by voting ‘no’. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Has Mr. Beaubien voted? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 103 people voting ‘yes’, 14 people voting ‘no’. This Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Mr. Delgado.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise on a personal privilege. We wanna welcome to our gallery our wonderful Chicago aldermens who are in town and a lot of mine that are up there, too. We wanna give them a nice, warm salute from the General Assembly to the aldermens who are here on their lobby day. And a warm welcome from the Latino Caucus also and in conjunction with all our colleagues.”
“House Bill 35… House Bill 3755. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill.” 09300060.doc 15 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3755, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Mr. Morrow.”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 3755 is the budget for the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority. Total FY04 budget recommendation of 124,605,000 is in other state funds. Represents no change from the Governor’s recommended level. Be glad to answer any questions.”
“Mr. Schmitz.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Sponsor, will you yield? All right. Chairman Morrow, there… there are some questions that popped up on this Bill after we had recessed. Traditionally, there’s a $5 million appropriation that comes over from DCCA or Depart… whatever the name is this year, comes over from that agency for their operating costs. Is that in this budget?”
“No, it’s not, Representative Schmitz. No, it’s not.”
“Is there… how are they gonna operate if we don’t have that… that appropriation?”
“That you would have to answer to… ask Director Davis. When she came before the committee to testify, if you recall, we did ask her about the $5 million that she had normally received. She mentioned that she felt that she could operate without that. When the… when the… when the staff of our committee was going around to ask Members of things that they had wanted to see put back in the budget, I never got a call from Director Davis or any of her 09300060.doc 16 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 liaisons asking us to… asking us to restore that $5 million. So because of that, we did not put that back in the budget.”
“Okay. So, this year we… the Body will not see 5 million coming over from commerce and…?”
“Not in House Bill 3755, Representative Schmitz.”
“Thank you, Chairman.”
“Or in the DCCA budget.”
“That… that was my question.”
“The question is, ‘Shall this Bill pass?’ Those in favor signify by voting ‘yes’; those opposed by voting ‘no’. Have all vo… The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 74 people voting ‘yes’, 43 people voting ‘no’. This Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3756. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3756, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Mr. Morrow.”
“Yes, House Bill 3756 is the budget of the Prisoner Review Board. There’s no change from the Governor’s introduced level, $1,471,100 of General Revenue Funds. I’ll be glad to answer any questions.”
“The question is, ‘Shall this Bill pass?’ Those in favor signify by voting ‘yes’; those opposed by voting ‘no’. 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 80 people voting 09300060.doc 17 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 ‘yes’, 37 people voting ‘no’. This Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3758. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3758, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Mr. Morrow.’
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. House Bill 3758 is the budget of the Southwest Illinois Development Authority, the Upper Illinois River Valley Development Authority, and the Rural Bond Bank. For the Southwest Illinois Development Authority there’s a total GRF request of $697,400; $232,700 is to replenish the Debt Service Reserve Fund backing bonds issued on behalf of the Spectrulite Consortium Inc., $464,700 to replenish the Debt Service Reserve Fund backing bonds issued on behalf of Waste Recovery-Illinois. The Upper River Valley, there’s $355,800 in GRF to replenish the Debt Service Reserve Fund backing bonds issued on behalf of Waste Recovery-Illinois. The Rural Bond Bank, this budget is introduced at the Governor’s introduced level of 275,000 GRF. I’d be glad to answer any questions.”
“The question is, ‘Shall this Bill pass?’ Those in favor signify by voting ‘yes’; those opposed by voting ‘no’. Take the record. On this question, there are 78 people voting ‘yes’, 37 people voting ‘no’. This Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3760. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill.” 09300060.doc 18 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3760, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Mr. Morrow.”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 3760 is the budget of the Sports Facility Authority. There’s no change from the Governor’s introduced level, 34,741,000 of other funds. Be glad to answer any questions.”
“The question is, ‘Shall this Bill pass?’ Those in favor signify by voting ‘yes’; those opposed by voting ‘no’. Has Mr. Mautino voted? Has Mr. Mautino voted? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 74 people voting ‘yes’, 43 people voting ‘no’. This Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3762. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3762, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.’
“Mr. Morrow.”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. We… we skipped 3761. We’re gonna go back to that? We’ll do 3762 now and go back to 3761?”
“Mr. Clerk, what is the status of 3761?”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3761, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Well, Mr. Clerk, what’s the status of the Bill now? Is the Bill on Third Reading?”
“The Bill is on Third Reading.” 09300060.doc 19 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“All right. So, for purposes of the record we are now on House Bill 3761. And Mr. Clerk, have you read this a third time?”
“The Bill has been read a third time.”
“Mr. Morrow, 3761.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 3761 is the budget of the Office of the State Fire Marshal. The total FY04 budget request is $16,541,200 in other state and federal funds. And it represents no change from the Governor’s recommended level.”
“Mr. Moffitt.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor yields.”
“Representative, would you just give us a brief rundown of what kind of change this represents from the current year or the year before? I don’t have that on my analysis here and I just wondered how the…”
“Let me see. Representative Moffitt, the changes from FY03, there’s no GRF last year… in the fiscal FY03 budget there was 2,364,000 in GRF, this year there’s no GRF funding. There’s a decrease in other funds of $850 thousand.”
“So, what’s the overall reduction in the State Fire Marshal’s…?”
“The overall reduction is $3,436,300.”
“Out of a total budget of how much?” 09300060.doc 20 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Out of the FY03 budget was $18,683,000, the FY04… I’m sorry, Representative. The FY03 appropriation was $19,977,500 and the FY04 request is $16,541,200, which is a decrease of 18.4 percent or 3… $3,436,300.”
“Appreciate that information. Of that, do you know what programs might be cut as a result of an 18 percent reduction in the State Fire Marshal’s Office?”
“A lot of the cuts were one-time budget items from the Federal Government from last year.”
“Do you think this will reduce ser… loc… ya know, service to our local communities and around the state on the things that the fire marshal does? We’ve had… we’ve had excellent service and the fire marshal’s been out in our fire departments and districts and we’d certainly hate to see any of that service reduced, response to incidences. And ya know, with the threats that unfortunately we face now, the State Fire Marshal is an integral part of any… any response and I just hope we haven’t put at risk the ability of the State Fire Marshal to respond or be throughout the state, downstate, southern Illinois, wherever, Chicago. I just hope we’re not compromising any in terms of safety. Do you feel that we are? I mean it… that…”
“No, I don’t believe so, Representative Moffitt.”
“…18 percent cut is…”
“I don’t… I don’t believe so, Representative Moffitt.”
“I… I know we’re taking hits. I thank you for your answers. I’m just concerned about the level of the cuts. Thank you very much.” 09300060.doc 21 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“The question is, ‘Shall this Bill pass?’ Those in favor signify by voting ‘yes’; those opposed by voting ‘no’. Has Mr. Wirsing voted? Mr… Mr. Joe Lyons. Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 99 people voting ‘yes’, 18 people voting ‘no’. This Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3762. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3762, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Mr. Morrow.”
“Yes, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 3762 is the budget of the State Police Merit Board. The total FY budget request is $805,400 from GRF. Represents no change from the Governor’s recommended level.”
“The question is, ‘Shall this Bill pass?’ Those in favor signify by voting ‘yes’… Mr. Morrow.”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn’t know if anyone’s gonna ask any questions. I would like to make… make a comment about this budget directly to the State Police Merit Board. For several years as chairman of the Appropriation Committee I’ve had a problem with the State Police and the State Police Merit Board. They insist that to be selected as a cadet is a random process. I think they’re lying. I have records to show that there is nepotism rampant in the State Police and the State Police Merit Board is a part of it. And I think the State Police 09300060.doc 22 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 Merit Board and the State Police need to address the rampant nepotism within their department. I’d like to… for them to prove to me that there is no ambiguity in their selection of cadet for their cadet classes. Otherwise, I am asking that we move this Bill out to fund the Police Merit Board, but those are some issues that they’re gonna have to address. Thank you.”
“Mr. Bost.”
“I… I just wanted to clarify if I could. Would the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor yields.”
“You’re saying you do want us to vote for this or you don’t want us to vote for this?”
“No, I do want us to vote for this…”
“Okay, I was just…”
“…but I just wanna be on record as having my concerns as chairman of this committee about the nepotism that goes on in this department.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“Question is, ‘Shall this Bill pass?’ Those in favor signify by voting ‘yes’; those opposed by voting ‘no’. The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are people 88 voting ‘yes’, 29 people voting ‘no’. This Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Mr. Novak in the Chair.”
“Representative Novak in the Chair. House Bill 3763, Mr. Morrow.” 09300060.doc 23 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3763, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Mr. Morrow.”
“Yes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. House Bill 3763 is the budget of Violence Prevention Authority. The total FY04 request is $5,280… I’m sorry, $5,280,100; $4… $4,080,100 is GRF, 1,200,000 is for the Violence Prevention Fund and House Amendment #1 allocated 100,000 from GRF grant line to the Holy Cross/IMH… IM… IMH for gain… Oh, that’s not in there, I’m sorry. House Amendment #1 is not in the budget. I’m sorry. So, those are the two… two items in the Violence Prevention Authority.”
"Is there any discussion? On that question, the Lady from Lake Ms. Osterman. Oh, excuse me. Seeing no discussion, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3763 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Eileen Lyons. Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are… there are 94 voting ‘yes’, 23 voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’. And having receive… received the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3763 is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3765, the Gentleman from Chicago, Mr. Morrow.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3765, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Mr. Morrow.” 09300060.doc 24 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 3765 is the budget of Illinois Department of Transportation. The total FY04 request is $8,578,028,000; total GRF funding is $87,327,700; total other state and federal funds are $8,490,700,300 and it represents no change in the Governor’s recommended level. Be glad to answer any questions.”
“Is there any discussion? And on this question, the Gentleman from Vermilion, Mr. Black.”
“Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I have an inquiry of the Chair.”
“Yes, Sir, state your inquiry.”
“It’s my understanding that this budget as presented has certain additions that were added in committee from the Governor’s introduced level. I would ask the Chair that if it’s in order, I would like a… to divide the question on each addition to the IDOT budget as it’s presented to us today.”
“Mr. Black, we will take that request under advisement, Sir.”
“Thank you.”
“And get back to you as soon as possible. Mr. Morrow.”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Representative Black. Representative Black. The Amendment that was adopted onto the Illinois Department of Transportation’s budget in committee yesterday was also tabled. Mr. Black, that 09300060.doc 25 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 Amendment was tabled, so that Amendment is not on this Bill.”
“Mr. Black.”
“Yeah, thank you very much. I appreciate that, Representative. That… that Amendment that I was concerned about was the Railroad Crossing Protection Fund and you say that is not in here?”
“You… you can… you can confirm with your Leader…”
“Okay.”
“…Republican Leader, Mr…”
“All right.”
“…Representative Schmitz…”
“So, there are no…”
“…but we tabled it.”
“…there are no other separate committee additions?”
“No, Sir.”
“Okay. Fine. I appreciate that. Thank you.”
“Does that satisfy you, Mr. Black?”
“Mr. Speaker, I’ll withdraw the request and we’ll, I’m sure, have some questions on the budget probably on both sides of the aisle, but we’ll see. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Sir. Any further discussion? The Gentleman… Mr. Froehlich.”
“Would the Sponsor yield for a question?”
“Sponsor yields.”
“Yes, Representative, I understand this Bill allocates $5 million for Peotone and that the original… the original amount under Illinois FIRST was supposed to be $15 09300060.doc 26 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 million. Can you tell me why the Peotone allocation has been slashed by 10 million?”
“Representative, the 15 million was for the first year and that came out of Illinois FIRST funding. There is a $5 million appropriation for land acquisition for Peotone in this… in this budget.”
“Okay, but not the 15 million originally anticipated?”
“No, no. No, Sir.”
“All right. Thank you.”
Speaker Novak: “Further discussion? The Gentleman from Winnebago, Mr. Winters. Mr. Winters.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor will yield.”
“The question that I had is a letter that I received from my local airport saying that there is some federal pass-through money, about a hundred and forty million dollars that had been reduced to about eighty million dollars. We’re losing something in the order of sixty- eight million dollars. It looks like it may be an appropriation mistake because these are all federal dollars, we simply are not appropriating those. Do you have some kind of an answer… hopefully a positive answer, that we’re coming back with an Amendment? Not that that was a leading question or anything.”
“Representative, we’re trying to work with the department to find out the exact amount of money that we’re getting from the Federal Government for this line item. 09300060.doc 27 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 We’re gonna work on that in the Senate to get the exact numbers.”
“So you are anticipating some kind of fix for this over in the Senate with an Amendment over there, once you have the actual numbers?”
“That’s correct.”
“Okay. The other line of questioning I have is on the diversions. It looks to me in round numbers that last year’s budget appropriated 2.3 billion for road… road improvements and that’s going down to 1.7. Are those good numbers to work with?”
“Yes.”
“And the reasoning for that $600 million fall or you could say that we’re spending… for every four dollars we spent last year, we’re spending three dollars this year, a 33 percent cut in capital going into our road construction. Those are primarily driven by the diversions from the Road Fund, added diversions for the Secretary of State, added diversions for the State Police, Motor Fuel Tax. Any response… any way that you see that we can put additional dollars back in?”
“Well, that’s a good question and the only way that you could put some additional dollars back in there, Representative, is to raise the Motor Fuel Tax and I don’t think we’re gonna do that this year.”
“Well, that’s not the only answer of a public servant is to raise taxes. I would say that instead of diverting road dollars that are already being raised by the Motor 09300060.doc 28 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 Fuel Tax, we could stop diverting those to the General Revenue Fund, find additional cuts in GRF and use the dollars for what they actually were taxed from the public. The public pays a per gallon tax on every gallon they buy and put into their car’s gas tank. They expect those dollars to come back into concrete and other improvements to the roads that they drive upon. We’re now diverting those dollars away from construction, bridge maintenance and repair to solve some of our GRF budgets. I would encourage this Body to look very carefully at this Bill. Those kinds of diversions are exactly what we fought downstate for years to make sure that the mileage that we have on our highways where we have to drive 30, 40, 50 miles a day to find employment, to get educated, to get to the state universities, those downstate roads have got to have the diversions stopped so we continue to have good quality roads. I think this Bill does not stop those diversions and I’d urge a ‘no’ vote against it.”
“Further discussion? The Gentleman from Macon, Mr. Mitchell, Bill Mitchell.” Mitchell, B.: “Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor will yield.” Mitchell, B.: “Yeah, Mr. Chair… Chairman, I’d like to know what’s in this budget for fiscal year ‘04 for Route 51? We’ve put a… in years past $40 million in that.”
“Representative, we’ll have to check on individual projects. We’re right now, we’re just presenting the 09300060.doc 29 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 overall budget. We’re not… I’m not… I don’t… I’m not able to respond right now to an individual project. Unfortunately, I do not have IDOT’s road plan for fiscal year FY04 right in from of me.” Mitchell, B.: “But we’re gonna vote on the budget today.”
“Well, I think you can ask the liaison of the Illinois Department of Transportation if that project is in their budget for this fiscal year.” Mitchell, B.: “I don’t think there’s a dime in there.”
“And just… I believe you have someone on staff…” Mitchell, B.: “I don’t think there’s a dime in fiscal year ‘04 for Route 51.”
“You can ask that of your staff person…” Mitchell, B.: “It’s just that I…” Morrow: “…they… I think they would have that information.” Mitchell, B.: “Thank you, I will. Thank you. If I could echo what my colleague from Vermilion County and Winnebago County said, we’re having over… we talked about yesterday, a hundred and fifty-one million dollars…”
“Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, can we have some order? I can’t hear him.”
“Can we have some order, please. Shh. Mr. Mitchell, state your question again, please.” Mitchell, B.: “Thank you. We talked about it briefly yesterday and my colleagues from Winnebago and Vermilion County were discussing it. We’re diverting a hundred and fifty-one million dollars from the Road Fund to the Secretary of State’s Office. At the same time and Representative 09300060.doc 30 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 Winters, I thought did a very good job, he says that, ya know, we in downstate Illinois particularly central Illinois are getting hit extremely hard and I want the colleagues, both Republican and Democrats, to know what you’re voting on this budget. The districts in central Illinois, my district, took a 35 percent decrease in road funding from one fiscal year to the next. The same time, DeWitt County is nine and a half percent unemployment, Macon County over eight percent unemployment and yet we’re diverting money from the Road Fund to the bureaucracy of the Secretary of State’s Office and the State Police at a time when we have economic troubles in central Illinois. We all know that we’re facing a $5 billion deficit and we’re all going to have to sacrifice, but I don’t think the brunt of the sacrifice should be made on the backs of the people in central Illinois. And what’s happened is the people in Cook County took 11 percent cut, the people in central Illinois, the areas that I represent, took 35 percent cuts, that’s just not fair. I will be voting ‘no’ on this budget. Thank you.”
“Further discussion? The Gentleman from Kane, Mr. Schmitz. Mr. Schmitz.”
“Good Morning, Mr. Speaker, how are you?”
“Good morning.”
“Chairman, I don’t envy the position you’re in right now where you… where you gotta present the budget and ya know, you gotta defend some of these items, but I… speaking as an upstate suburban collar county, I mean this is a 09300060.doc 31 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 tough one. We gotta go back to our districts and tell ‘em that, while we passed this budget we got about $900 million that we’re not putting into road projects and my constituents are gonna talk to me, yours are gonna talk to you and say I’ve already paid the Motor Fuel Tax, it’s a user fee, I’ve already paid it per gallon, where is… where is the projects that we’re doing? So, I’ve gotta echo my colleague from central Illinois, we heard from southern Illinois that… Chairman, this is a tough one to vote for and unfortunately I cannot support this while we keep doing this diversion and you can’t go back home and explain to the… to our taxpayers that the road projects that were in there are now gone or possibly, we don’t know what projects are in there or not. So, it’s a tough one for me, Charles. I just wanna tell you up front now, I’m gonna be a ‘no’ on this.”
“Well, Representative Schmitz, you made a comment about it’s tough for me to have to present the budget. It’ll be tougher for me if you were presenting the budgets, ‘cause that’d mean I’m in the Minority. I’m in the Majority, so it’s not tough at all for me to present these budgets.”
“Mr. Schmitz, are you… have you concluded your questions? All right. Further discussion? The Gentleman from Cook, Mr. Miller. Representative Miller.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor yields.” 09300060.doc 32 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“I have a few questions. The TEA-21 transit study, is that federal dollars? Can you kind of elaborate on that a little bit?”
“Yes, that is federal dollars and if you just hold one moment, Representative. Okay. The lump sum for TEA-21, the purpose of this line item is to appropriate… this appropriation allows for the federal reimbursement of approved highway planning and research projects as specified in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st century. There’s a request of… for fiscal year FY04 of $1,750,000.”
“Now, does that direct the Governor to place those funds in any… in any particular way? There’s some concern in our region that we’re trying to get clearly funds directed and for him to act in a certain way in regards to a… in regards to these funds.”
“That, Representative, I think you will need to talk to IDOT themselves as to what use they’re gonna use for that… for that line item.”
“Okay. Other… Okay. Okay. All right. But he doesn’t… Okay. The other fund… other question regards into a comment made earlier in regards to Peotone. There were some dollars that were not used as opposed to reallocating unspent dollars. What is the status in this budget in regards to that?”
“Representative, the monies that have been unspent for land acquisition for Peotone have been reapproped.”
“So they don’t exist there?” 09300060.doc 33 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Well, they exist, but they just… they just been carried over from each fiscal year that they’ve been unused for just land acquisition.”
“Okay. So, for the 36 million for land acquisition is it in the budget for Peotone?”
“Reapproped there’s 36 million, but there’s 5 million new monies for land acquisition.”
“Minus the 15 mill… the…”
“Minus the 15 million.”
“…the 15 million that was supposed to be… that was taken from the original agreement from Governor Ryan?”
“That’s correct.”
“All right. Thank you.”
“Any further… Okay. Further questions? The Lady from Lake, Representative Ryg.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I share the concerns of some of the previous speakers over the diversions of funds in my district, in Lake County, we were significantly impacted by the diversion of Illinois FIRST funds in this budget. I called a meeting with my colleagues from Lake County yesterday. Representative Sullivan and I met with our Senate colleagues to discuss with the secretary this diversion and we will be very closely watching the impact in the Senate discussions. Our local municipalities have committed local dollars based on the commitment of Illinois FIRST funds. So again, we share some concerns and we’ll be watching what happens on the Senate side. Thank you.” 09300060.doc 34 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Thank you. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3765 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 68 voting ‘yes’, 48… 49 voting ‘no’, 1 voting ‘present’. And having reached the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3765 is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3769. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill, please.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3769, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“The Gentleman from Cook, Mr. Morrow.”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. House Bill 3769 is the budget of the Illinois State Police. The total FY04 budget request is $386,075,900; 208,746,000 is from GRF, $177,329,900 are from other state and federal funds and there was an addition to this budget. House Amendment #1 added $2,026,500 from GRF for a cadet training class scheduled to start in January of 2004. Be glad to answer any questions.”
“Thank you. Is there any discussion? On that question, the Gentleman from Vermilion, Mr. Black.”
“Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. If I could find all the paperwork here, bear with for me just a second.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“I apologize for the delay. All right. Will the… will the chairman… will the Sponsor yield?” 09300060.doc 35 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“The Sponsor will yield.”
“Representative, I wanna make sure I understand that the… there is money in this to continue the radio upgrade. Is there not?”
“Yes, Representative Black. Representative Black, yes.”
“Thank you very much. I did a ride along not long ago with a state trooper on an evening shift and we were on Interstate 57. And the current radio system has too many dead spots and it is a danger and I’m glad to see that we’re continuing to upgrade that. Representative, I remember the Governor and reading about it, but I assume that the appropriation for new state police cars have been removed from the budget?”
“Representative Black… Representative Black, I don’t believe there’s any new monies for new police cars. I believe that there’s a fund that exists within the budget that allows them to purchase cars, but it’s no request from the Governor to purchase an additional fleet of cars, no.”
“Yeah, it’s my understanding that there are no new cars and Representative, as you’ll recall you helped me pass a Bill I… years ago and the Senate passed it, but they refused to fund it. It was called Operation Kick Start and we modeled it after the Missouri State Police Program where after one or two years of appropriations the state police would be responsible for trading in their… one third of their fleet every year and they wouldn’t have to come to us for capital money. It has worked very well in Missouri. I 09300060.doc 36 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 don’t know why the Senate has continually refused to appropriate the money. We should get those cars out of the… out of the budget and let them do it like most states do. But it’s something that you and I worked on about eight years ago and maybe we can continue to work on it. My last question is, on the command officer structure, they’re… they pointed out, rightfully so, that under the Governor’s proposed budget they would actually be making less money than people beneath them in rank, in service. Has that been addressed in the budget?”
“Representative Black, the monies for their merit comp raise and their pension contribution is in the budget…”
“All right. So…”
“but… but it’s up to the Governor whether or not he spends it.”
“Yeah, well, everything we do is obviously ultimately up to the Governor, but at least… at least we have tried to address the command officers, I think very legitimate complaint, that with the rank and the service and the responsibility all of a sudden you’d be better off to go to your noncommissioned rank. So, I… I appreciate your work on that and obviously all that we do here is ultimately contingent upon the budget… the Governor’s pen, he can sign some of these or he can veto the whole budget or he can line item. So, that remains to be seen, but thank you very much for your work on this budget.”
“Thank you. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3769 pass?’ 09300060.doc 37 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Black. Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 99 voting ‘yes’, 18 voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’. And having reached the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3769 is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3773. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3773, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Mr. Morrow.”
“Yes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 3773 is the budget of the Department of Corrections. The Governor’s introduced level for the department was $1,430,044,600 in all funds and $1,282,935,800 in GRF. There was some additions made by the House Public Safety Appropriation Committee. We added 17,300,000 in GRF in a lump sum to restore the line item for the 240 hun… for the 240 correctional captains. We also added $78,054,054 in bonding authority money for the Pembroke Correctional Center and a hundred and twenty-six million one hundred and twenty thousand seven hundred dollars for the Grayville Correctional Center. Both of these items were taken out of the Build Illinois Bonds as a reaprop from the FY03 levels. The following reductions were made from funded vacancies for the purpose of including the captains removed by the Governor’s level. We removed 11 million from the personal service lines, 585 09300060.doc 38 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 thousand from retirement pickup, 1,400,000… 1,430,000 in state employee retirement, 765 thousand in Social Security, 1 million in contractual services from the general office and 1 million from the school district, 1 million from the EDT in the general office and 1 million in equipment from field services for a total reduction of $17,780,000. Be glad to answer any questions.”
“Is there any discussion? The Lady from Kane, Representative Lindner.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Yields.”
“I see a number of things on here, but I know in the Governor’s speech he promised to reopen Sheridan Prison which is in my area and I don’t see that on here… on this list. Is that in the Corrections budget?”
“Sheridan is reopened.”
“All right.”
“Or will be reopened.”
“How… how much…”
“That was in the Governor’s introduced budget.”
“Okay. So, that… oh, you’re just saying what you’ve added…”
“Right. What that does…”
“…so you’re not… okay.”
“…the Pembroke and the Grayville is what we added as a committee.”
“All right. And could you tell me how much that is in the original budget.” 09300060.doc 39 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“For Sheridan? $23,783,900.”
“Thank you.”
Speaker Novak: “Further discussion? The Gentleman from Winnebago, Mr. Winters.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor will yield.”
“I notice in here that there are funding for 60 additional parole officers in the budget. Is that correct?”
“Yes. Yes.”
“Now, with 60 additional officers, I would have hoped that we would have seen the reopening of some of the adult transitions centers for parole… parolees, such as the one in Winnebago County, second largest city in the state and you managed to shut it last year. I’d like to see the dadgum thing reopened. You got 60 new officers. We could use about 30 of ‘em up there. Any… any encouraging words on that?”
“Work on it in the Senate.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Work on it in the Senate.”
“They’re gonna be someplace in the state, but you don’t think you can find all your way up north to Rockford. Is that… The state highway maps do include a city of a hundred and fifty thousand up there, but you don’t think that… that we have any parolees.”
“Well, Representative Winters, you should have brought those con… your concerns to your Republican Leader, 09300060.doc 40 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 Representative Schmitz. If Representative Schmitz had brought your concerns to me, I would have tried to address ‘em.”
“So, you’re telling me that Representative Schmitz didn’t even raise this issue?”
“I… it was not raised in committee. No, it wasn’t, Sir.”
“Well, I’ve raised it. Are we gonna get this added into the budget over in the Senate as we did with the… the airport language in the DOT Bill?”
“Well, you said you raised it, but did you raise it in my committee? I don’t think you’re a Member of my committee.”
“No, I’m not and I really regret that, too.”
“And I wish you had brought it to me ‘cause I wouldn’t… being the gentleman that you are, I would have tried to… to have addressed it.”
“Well, I think… I think it is something that we ought to… we ought to continue to look at. If you have an opportunity, those facilities are still available and highly needed in our home communities. Thank you.”
Speaker Novak: “Further discussion? The Gentleman from Clinton, Mr. Granberg.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Gentleman yield?”
“Sponsor’ll yield.”
“You better watch yourself.”
“It’s not a bad thing.”
“You better watch yourself.” 09300060.doc 41 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Don’t worry, don’t worry, Charlie. It’s all right. Trust me. All right. Just one quick question. Does this budget reflect the Governor’s proposal to eliminate the captains’ positions in the Department of Corrections?”
“No. As I said earlier, Representative, it was the wish of the committee Members that we restore the positions of the 240 captains at 17 million, $17.3 million.”
“Very good. You’ve done an excellent job, as always.”
“Thank you.”
“I try.”
“Thank you. Further discussion? The Gentleman from Winnebago, Mr. Sacia.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“The Sponsor will yield.”
“One thing I’ve noticed about this budget, Representative Morrow, is there is $200 million in here for Grayville and Hopkins Park and though Thomson, Illinois, is not in my district, it borders my district. And as I think everybody in this Body knows, we have a brand new state of the art prison sitting in Thomson, Illinois, totally vacant, costing the taxpayers a minimum of a million dollars a year just to sit there vacant. The cost of this prison was the second most expensive capital expenditure for a building in the history of this state and yet, it sits closed. And this budget includes $200 million for Grayville and Hopkins Park. As recently as yesterday morning, I received a call from a gentleman in Thomson who 09300060.doc 42 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 spent his entire life savings building a new Amoco facility in anticipation of the Thomson Prison opening when it was being built. And I don’t think there’s a person in this learned Body that wouldn’t agree that when a prison is being built you could assume that it would be opened. And many people in that small community spent their life savings building motels, building businesses to accommodate those that would be coming there to take part in this new prison. It is absolutely an appalling situation to see $200 million for other not yet built facilities to be built and that money… once those facilities are built, Thomson will be competing with those facilities for the approximately $50 million a year that each one of them will need to be operated. Representative Morrow, this is unconscionable, literally unconscionable, that we are not taking care of Thomson Prison. And I’ll tell you why we’re not. It’s in northwest Illinois, we are forgotten. And it is absolutely shameful and this is probably one of the worst parts of this budget is not dealing with Thomson Prison, which is literally left there to die. And I would appreciate any comments you could make, Sir.”
“Well, it’s unconscionable that you didn’t bring the situation up to the… to your Republican Spokesman or to the chairman, that’s what’s unconscionable. The reason why Pembroke and Grayville was added back as a reapprop because the Representatives whose districts cover those prisons made a request to the committee. You had the same opportunity. Now, I know that you’re a freshman and you 09300060.doc 43 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 might not have known that you had that opportunity, but you… you… if you had come to me with that, I would have taken a look at it. I am a chairman, I think I’m a pretty good chairman, but I don’t have the ability to read minds. And so, I can only deal with what’s brought forth before the chairman to address. Your… the issue that you have brought up was never brought to the chairman to address.” Sacia: “Well, Representative Morrow, the Gentleman that represents that district sits on that side of the aisle and I have a lot of respect for him, a lot of respect. I know he’s a hardworking Representative. And, I’ll tell you something else, I received a personal letter from the Governor dated March 2, I’m sorry, correction, May the 2, directed to me personally as to why he wasn’t opening Thomson Prison in 2004, but he promised me that it was on his front burner and he was going to do something like… something about it as soon as possible. Well, as soon as possible really appalls me when I see these other two facilities being built and like I say, Thomson is not in my district, Sir, but it borders my district. And there are so many people there that have lost jobs and had anticipated good things happening that simply are not happening, Sir.”
“You need to take that up with the Governor, Representative. I’m not the Governor, yet.”
“That’s really a good, positive response, Representative Morrow. I’m really a little disappointed in that. I would think, Sir, that you yourself had said you’ve chaired the 09300060.doc 44 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 committee, you’ve admonished me for being a freshman and that I didn’t know any better to come to you, and now you tell me to take it up with the Governor. This is absolutely unconscionable, Sir, that you are opening two more facilities or at least building two more and letting the second most expensive capital expenditure for a building in this state sit locked up, spending a million dollars a year just to keep the toilets flushing and the computers working. That is absolutely unacceptable, Sir.”
“First of all, the Governor doesn’t want to build these two prisons. It’s the wishes of the Members of the committee that we put this back into the budget. Now, you mentioned about all the people in your area that built businesses and everything. Well, the City of Pembroke sell bonds for water and sewer service in anticipation of Pembroke being built. The Governor’s proposing spending $40 million on a prison that’s almost… that had started being constructed, he’s proposed to spending $40 million to close it down, on a $90 million prison. As I said earlier, you received a letter from the Governor making some commitments to you. I did not receive that letter. You never got a letter from me making any commitment on that prison. So, to say that you that… it’s unconscionable for me, you need to address those issues to the Governor who sent you the letter. The letter said, Governor Blagojevich, didn’t it? It didn’t say, Governor Morrow.”
“Representative Morrow, you’re right, it did not. But I cannot believe, Sir, I truly cannot believe that with as 09300060.doc 45 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 many people in this learned Body that know that Thomson Prison is sitting there, a brand new unopened facility, that, and I’ll accept a good part of the responsibility, Sir, no, I did not come to you and talk to you about it personally. Again, I stress the fact, it’s not in my district, had it been, I assure you, somehow I would have been there arguing. But, be that as it may, we are still spending $200 million for two more facilities and I implore you, Sir, I implore you to talk to the Governor about this and ask that money be allocated for Thomson Prison, even though we don’t have the clout out there, we deserve to have that prison open, Sir.”
“I’m gonna have one last comment on this, Representative. Why don’t you… you know, they are drafting a gaming Bill. Why don’t you make a proposal that Thomson Prison become… become a gaming facility since all the hotels and everything have been built around it?”
“Representative Morrow, the reason I wouldn’t do that, Sir, is it should have been handled when this was addressed, Thomson shou… Prison definitely should have been addressed. You are surrounded by staff people, everyone of those persons know that Thomson is sitting there locked up and dying on the vine and hundreds of good people cannot get employment because of it, Sir.”
Speaker Novak: “Further discussion? The Gentleman from Crawford, Mr. Eddy.”
“Thank you very much. Would the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor’ll yield.” 09300060.doc 46 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Representative, I have some of the same concerns as Representative Sacia. The closing of the Jenison Work Camp in Paris, Illinois, last year was, as you might imagine, a blow to a community that is located in east central Illinois and suffers from some of the same problems other communities in the state regarding employment. And at the time that it was closed, there was discussion, a lot of discussion last fall during the campaign, as to whether or not there might be funding available to reopen that camp. My question first is, whether or not there was any discussion that you became aware of during these negotiations that related to the Paris Work Camp?”
“No.”
“Okay. Well, I appreciate that and I certainly don’t want to lay at your footstep the lack of that line item being returned to the budget. However, it is something that I have personally written letters on, made contacts on, because it is a major issue to that area. And what concerns me more, when I look at this budget and there… the details of this budget, especially when we add 60 jobs for officers and we also see in this budget a new line item for Cook County Work Camps when other areas of the state aren’t receiving the same type of consideration to reopen facilities that were… were there prior. It appears as if this is a shift not a budget savings, but a shift of resources and state support of jobs from rural Illinois to the Cook County area. And that is my concern.” 09300060.doc 47 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Well, Representative, the Cook County Boot Camp has been funded for the last… excuse me… two or three fiscal years, so they… they… they were never closed. Now, as I’ve… as I’ve said before to some of your colleagues on the other side of the aisle, some of the issues that you’re talkin’ about were never brought to my… to my attention. So, the only thing that I, as chairman, can… can… can work on is what’s brought to my attention. The only thing that I can address is what’s brought to my attention.”
“Representative, I understand and I do appreciate that. I guess my point is that the initial budget, the initial budget could have, if this had been a priority of the Governor, the initial budget would have included the reopening of that work camp as had been promised during that campaign. That’s my point. I’m not laying it on your doorstep. However, the initial budget did not include that. And I notice on the analysis that I’m looking at here is that there are two new line items in the Cook County DOC budget that appropriate eight and a half million dollars. Now, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a line item for them and… but we have an indication on our analysis that there’s eight and a half million dollars increased there.”
“But… but that’s not a new increase, Representative. This… this was a… this was appropriation that was in the FY03 budget. So, that’s not a new line item. And it was in the FY02 budget…”
“Question.” 09300060.doc 48 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“…so, this is not a new line item.”
“That money, however, was not spent in ’03. Is that correct?”
“Yes, it was spent.”
“The money that is on those two new line items was not spent for those purposes in ’03. Is that correct?”
“Yes. It was spent and it’s the same line item.”
“Our understanding is that was reserve. That amount was reserve.”
“We’re not aware of that, Representative.”
“Well, thank you for that. How about the hiring of the 60 new parole agents for $6 million? That’s about the cost that it would take to reopen the camp in Paris and my point there is, we need to maintain what we have, not only in Cook County or urban areas of this state, but also in rural areas of this state. We need to maintain the facilities that support public safety and that seems like an expenditure that would… would add a cost at a time prior to us reopening that facility in Paris, Illinois.”
“Well, Representative, I can… your point is well-taken, but I could also argue the point that the 60 parole agents are needed in my community. I have… my district represents Englewood. Englewood has the highest number of prisoners that were released out of the prison system. So, my constituents would want me to come down here and make sure that… that those inmates that have been released back into my community have somebody to supervise ‘em. So…”
“Representative, I respect you for that.” 09300060.doc 49 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“…it’s apples and oranges.”
“I respect you for that and understand that that’s exactly what I’m doing is for the area that I represent. I’m making the point that in this year especially, there are gonna be priorities from all around this state that aren’t gonna be met, however, why in a year we cannot fund existing programs the additional cost being added prior to adding those back such as the Paris Work Camp. That concerns me greatly in any budget whether… whatever department it is, new programs, new line items, when people were promised their job, we’re talkin’ about peoples’ livelihood, we’re talkin’ about people in my area who are not working or have hardships and have been transferred because items have been added somewhere else in the budget. And I understand the pressures to… and add those items; however, I want you to understand and I want this Body to understand that these types of things, as Representative Sacia indicated, are causing problems in other parts of the state. Would… would… would it be possible to get some additional information regarding the specific appropriations for that eight and a half million dollars and to know exactly where that appropriation is going as it might compare to my concern?”
“I’m sure you can get… you can sit down with the Department of Correction liaison or with your staff and find those answers.”
“Representative, would you be willing to hold or pull this out of the record until such time as we can compare 09300060.doc 50 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 the priority nature of those items to the nature of the priority I bring up with peoples’ jobs? Would you be willing to do that while we look at that?”
“No, I don’t believe… I don’t believe we should pull it out of the record because of priority issues. I mean, if that’s the case, we have a hundred and eighteen priorities down here and I can’t pull a Bill out for a hundred and eighteen priorities.”
“Okay. Thank you. To the Bill.”
“To the Bill.”
“I appreciate the comments of the Sponsor and I understand the fact that we are in a situation where there is obviously not enough funding for every… every item in this budget or any other budget. However, I do wanna make the point to this Body that there are facilities in this state that were closed and they were closed with promises that they would be reopened when funds became available and funds obviously are available when we’re adding line items to a budget and that promise wasn’t kept. Thank you.”
“Thank you. Mr. Morrow.”
“I just wanna remind the Members, when you add something, you gotta cut something. And in my committee, when it came to the Department of Correction budget, whenever we added, we found the line items to cut. So, Representative, you wanna restore some of these things, come up with the cuts and then we’ll put it back in the budget.”
“Mr. Eddy. One question…” 09300060.doc 51 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“I believe my name was mentioned…”
“…you spoke already in debate.”
“Okay. Thank you. I would ask again then that I would be given the opportunity to do that by pulling this out of the record, so that we can look at those line item expenditures and we could make that recommendation. I appreciate the fact that you… you would… you would make the statement that we would find it. I would certainly be willing to do that if you’d be willing to pull that out for me to have that opportunity.”
“Representative, that’s the purpose of having hearings. Last week my staff talked to your staff about any requests that you may… your side of the aisle may have had on all the agencies that are in my budget. The Governor’s budget has been out for six weeks, so at this late date that request is not… I don’t… it’s up to the Chair to whether or not that’s a timely request, but as chairman of the appropriation committee, I think I’ve been fair in giving every Member in this chamber the opportunity through their spokesman, through their staff, and the opportunity to come to me as a chairman.”
“Representative, please don’t misunderstand my comments as…”
“I’m not misunderstanding your comments.”
“…as an indication… as an indication of you being fair or not. That was not intended that way. However, if there are opportunities to look at this and look for ways for that item to be restored, I would… I would like the 09300060.doc 52 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 opportunity to do that and I appreciate your consideration. I also appreciate the situation you’re in by presenting this at this time and as you indicate, I would be willing to leave it up to the Chair, as well.”
“Representative, you do have an opportunity in the Senate, so talk to your Senator.”
“Further discussion?”
“Thank you.”
“The Gentleman from… from Morgan, Mr. Watson.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor will yield.”
“Representative Morrow, I applaud the restorations that you have made and please do not take these comments as an affront to you at all, they’re more about the situation. During the campaign, the Governor came to my district and said he was going to reopen Greene County Boot Camp. Was there any discussion in committee about that?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t hear that, Representative.”
“Was there any discussion in the committee about reopening any of the boot camps?”
“There was never any discussion by any Member in my committee about reopening any facilities.”
“And you’re pretty familiar with the boot camps.”
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
“I’ve been around 17 years.”
“Right.” 09300060.doc 53 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“I’ve been appropriation chairman for almost ten years. There was never any discussion.”
“I just have a point and I do hope that everyone is listening whether you’re a conservative or a liberal. Yesterday, in one of the committees, we were discussing economic development. Representative Kelly and Representative Dunkin mentioned the hard times they have in their… in their areas. Representative Dunkin mentioned an abnormally high number of rate of people being put in prison. If you are a fiscal conservative, these boot camps provide a return on investment. Very few facilities in this state provide return on investments. These facilities, these boot camps, allow people to do projects and give back to the community. If you are a liberal, these facilities give people a second chance. A lot of our young men that go through the corrections system, we all know what happens. They end up coming back because the recidivy rate is so high. What these boot camps do is they say, we’re gonna give you one more shot. And I think Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative, this is a facility where we can find common ground and they should be put back in. And Representative, I have… just have one question to you is, will you work with me next year to try to get these facilities in, given that light?”
“Well, before I answer that. You know, I worked… my purpose here today is just to present a budget. But now, I’m gonna present a position of me. Last year when all these prisons were cut, somebody said you’re tearing up my 09300060.doc 54 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 community by closing these prisons. Well, my response was, you tear up my community when there’s a busload of young men who’ve been found guilty of some bs charges that you don’t wanna expunge. So, you tear up my community and enhance your community by creating jobs. All right. You tear up my community when you vote to see a young man and young peop… young woman from my community on possession charges of drugs. Where young men and young women in your community who are convicted of drug possession get court supervision or get rehab, but you put my kids in jail. And then after they serve their time in jail, you don’t wanna vote to expunge a misdemeanor. So, you talk about second chance. When you gonna give my community a second chance? You want… you want to prosper on the backs of my peo… of my kids. Now, I’m just here to deal with the budget.”
“If you’re… if you’re trying to imply…”
“No, no, no. Let me finish, Sir. Sir.”
“…if you are implying that I am sending young…”
“No, I’m not implying that you said anything.”
“You said that I prosper…”
“No, no. I did not.”
“…on the backs of people going to prison. And that is absolutely…”
“I did not.”
“…unexcusable.”
“I did not. I did not. I did not. But your questions have…” 09300060.doc 55 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“What I am asking for is to give those young men a second chance through a boot camp…”
“They shouldn’t have to have a second chance…”
“…so that their life isn’t spent…”
“…if they wouldn’t have to have a second chance, if they were given the first chance.”
“And I voted for expungement.”
“No one said you did not. But all I’m saying is… all I’m saying is, my purpose is to present the budget. All this philosophical stuff about economic loss, because of a prison being closed or prison not being opened, is not the reason why I’m here to present this budget. And the reason why I responded the way I responded, because I have the right as ch… as a Representative, not as a chairman, to say that my community is destroyed by the criminal laws that we pass, that puts them in this situation.”
“And Representative, I agree with you. And I vow to… I will work with you to help correct that situation.”
“Now, getting back to your question. I am willing to work with you on that, but as I said, no one from your side of the aisle brought these issues in committee to the chairman’s attention, to the chairman’s attention. Now, at this late hour, the chairman has no redress on those issues…”
“I understand.”
“…not this year, unless you deal with it in the Senate. Now, as… I’m gonna probably be chairman next year and I’m gonna probably be chairman in 2005. I would say… I will 09300060.doc 56 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 commit to you that I will work with you on those issues, but as of today, this is what we have to work with.”
“Thank you.”
Speaker Novak: “Further discussion? The Gentleman from Vermilion, Mr. Black.”
“Well, thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’ll see if I can’t throw a little oil on these troubled waters. It’s always been my job to bring calm and quiet to the chamber.”
“Mr. Black.”
“Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Yes, Sir, he will.”
“Thank you. Representative, I’ve known you since the day you came in this chamber. No one works any harder than you, no one reaches out anymore than you. I think no one has the reputation as being anymore fair than you are. I’ve always applauded you for that. You and I have always been able to work very well together. I think in defense of the Governor, the Governor did not propose to continue the construction of Pembroke and Grayville in his budget. He made it very clear that he didn’t think he had the money, nor would he have the operational money to open those correctional facilities and so he clearly said in his budget message that Grayville and Pembroke would come to a halt. And there are some legitimate questions of lawsuits and so forth and so on. But in defense of the Governor, and it’s good for me to defend the Governor on occasion, this has been added by the committee and my guess is, the Governor will… will more than likely veto out new 09300060.doc 57 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 construction when his budget director realizes full well we have completed facilities that more eloquently than I can state have been finished and can’t afford to open because we can’t afford to staff. He… he, on the other hand, did promise certain things during the campaign and has not adequately in our area expressed why he has not been able to keep those promises about work camps and I think, more importantly, may be the adult transition centers. I don’t have one in my district, but there’s another return on investment where they can ease back in to everyday life and those were closed, one very close to me in Urbana and I feel badly about that because one of my constituents who was called to active duty from the National Guard and sent to Saudi Arabia for force security returned home just in time to get his layoff notice when the adult transition center closed. The Governor will have to explain the promises that he made that he has not delivered or perhaps will say what he hasn’t delivered. But having said all that, the only concern that I have with the budget you’re presenting, Representative, there’s one line item that’s very, very similar to one that Representative Hannig and I discussed last year. We put 25 million in the budget last year to continue food service in case privatization didn’t continue. My remarks at that time was I don’t like to build much on hope. I like the appropriation; I wanna see the money. My point is on the captains. Instead of incorporating the captains’ salary and benefits into the personnel line item, it’s sitting out there like a 09300060.doc 58 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 softball. Governor Ryan vetoed the 25 million, the courts took care of privatization. My concern is and I’ve expressed this from day one to my side of the aisle, I think there is no savings to be gained by eliminating the captains. They work a double shift. They don’t get overtime. If you eliminate them, first of all, you’ve gotta… you’ve got to replace them with somebody to do their job. These are not desk-bound administrative personnel. These are front line cellblock personnel who when they are asked or ordered to work a double shift get no overtime, lieutenants and sergeants get overtime. So, I thought the savings from the Governor’s budgetary message were illusory at best. My only concern, and I raised this last year with Representative Hannig and I raise it with you, with the captains’ line items sitting out there completely separate, my fear is that it’s a softball waiting to be struck by the veto pen. And I would hate to go home, tell my captains, I think they’re going to continue to work because the correctional center in my district has been open 20 years, many of them are close to retirement. I know you can’t guarantee that anymore than Representative Hannig could last year, but I just want you to know, that’s why I’m gonna vote ‘no’ on the budget. Had they been incorporated in the personnel line item, it would have been very, very difficult to take ‘em out. When they’re sittin out there like a softball, a neon softball, my fear is it’s gonna be very easy to veto them out and I think that’s shortsighted and will not save us any money. So, I just wanted to, 09300060.doc 59 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 since we’re not allowed to explain our vote, why I cannot vote even though I am very grateful the captains have been reinstated and I think it’s fiscally sound to do so, I’m just not real comfortable with where they’ve been, how they’ve been reinstated in the budget process. So, I don’t want anybody to misconstrue my vote. Until we get further in this process, I wanna make sure they stay and I’m not sure this does that. So, that’s why I’m gonna vote ‘no’. Well, Representative, you said one remark a while ago and I think that’s part of the problem. The budget address was only six weeks ago. We have had a very difficult time, you, I, everybody in this chamber, we’ve had a very difficult time in a very difficult budget year trying to digest the Governor’s message and the fiscal reality of the state in a six-week period. Here we are on the 16th of May discussing things we normally we would be discussing about the 16th of April and I think that timeline and that pressure is getting to all of us. But I know how hard you work, I appreciate the work you do, but I can’t in good conscience vote for a Bill that I think is just begging for the captains to be line… or to be line item vetoed out. And I think that’s a terrible mistake. No reflection on you or your committee. You’ve always listened to my views. I just want you to know why I’m gonna vote ‘no’.”
“Thank you. Further discussion?”
“Represen…”
“The Gentleman from Peoria, Mr. Leitch.” 09300060.doc 60 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think what we’re hearing in this debate is to suggest that we have some work to do in the Senate. I, too, expected some of the work camps back in the budget, notably, Hanna City. From a policy standpoint, the work camps are the most effective means of working with the prison population, to give ‘em another chance, to let them, as a reward, be in the work camp itself. And in the case of our community, Hanna City Work Camp was contributing over 68 thousand hours a year to the communities in the area. It was a win, win, win for everyone and especially from a fiscal standpoint as well as for the prisoners. So, I would encourage Members who are disappointed in not seeing those work camp funds restored to work together and try and get those back in, in the Senate because in my view it makes no sense to spend the kind of money on new facilities that we’re proposing to spend at the sacrifice of some of the most effective work camps that should, in everyone’s view, be reopened. Thank you.”
“Thank you. Any further discussion? Hearing none, the question is, ‘Shall Senate… excuse me, House Bill 3773 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Ms. Bailey, you wish to vote? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 77 voting ‘yes’, 40 voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’. Having reached the required Constitutional Majority, House 09300060.doc 61 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 Bill 3773 is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3777. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill, please.”
Clerk Bolin: “House Bill 3777, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Excuse me. Pardon me. Take that Bill out of the record, Mr. Clerk. House Bill 3778. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk.”
Clerk Bolin: “House Bill 3778, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Mr. Morrow.”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 3778 is the budget of Capital Development Board operations. Total FY04 budget recommendation of $13,729,200 in other state funds. It represents no change from the Governor’s recommended level.”
“Is there any discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Shall House… Yes, Mr. Morrow.”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am gonna remove my role… my role as chairman right now. There are some concerns I have with the Capital Development Board. I am voting ‘no’ on the budget, but I do want the Capital Development Board to listen to what I have to say. They have almost destroyed a very fine program within the Capital Development Board called the Groundbreakers Program, which was created by myself and Dennis Gannon with the Chicago Federation of Labor and the previous director to increase minority participation on Capital Development 09300060.doc 62 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 Board projects in the field of engineering and architecture. I would hope that Governor Blagojevich would see the need to keep that program active and also I would hope that the Governor would keep the capital program unit and the school construction unit within the offices of the Capital Development Board. Other than that, I would urge ‘green’ votes on House Bill 3778.”
“Is there any discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3778 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 75 voting ‘yes’, 41 voting ‘no’, 1 voting ‘present’. And having reached the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3778 is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3779. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill, please.”
Clerk Bolin: “House Bill 3779, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Mr. Morrow.”
“Yes, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 3779 is the budget of the Criminal Justice Information Authority. The total FY04 budget request is $134,980,400; $5,674,600 is GRF, a hundred and twenty-nine million three hundred and five thousand eight hundred dollars is from other state and federal funds. It represents no change from the Governor’s recommended level.” 09300060.doc 63 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Thank you. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3779 pass?’ All in favor vote ‘aye’; opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the rec… Mr. McGuire. Mr. Clerk, take the record, please. On this question, there are 85 voting ‘yes’, 32 voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’. And having reached the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3779 is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3790. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill, please.”
Clerk Bolin: “House Bill 3790, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Mr. Morrow.”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 3790 is the budget of the Illinois Department of Military Affairs. The total FY04 request is $42,005,828. Total GRF funding is $15,149,428, other state and federal funds are $26,856,400. House Amendment #1 to House Bill 3790 increases the Lincoln Challenge stipend by 528 thousand General Revenue Fund. And there was an Amendment… language in Amendment #1 appropriates $1,554,228 for a grant of 2… $259,038 to each designee that was related to an armed forces member that lost their life during active duty during either Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom. I’d be glad to answer any questions.” 09300060.doc 64 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Thank you. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3790 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 108 voting ‘yes’, 9 voting ‘zero’(sic-‘no’), 0 voting ‘present’. And having reached the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3790 is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3794. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill, please.”
Clerk Bolin: “House Bill 3794, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Mr. Morrow.”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 3794 is the budget for the Department of Labor. Total FY04 request is 6,182,000; 6,036,000 is GRF, a hundred and forty-six thousand are other state funds and this represents no change from the Governor’s recommended level. I’d be glad to answer any questions.”
“Is there any discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3794 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 75 voting ‘yes’, 42 voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’. And having reached the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3794 is hereby 09300060.doc 65 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 declared passed. House Bill 2289. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill, please.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 2289, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Mr. Morrow.”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. House Bill 2289 is the budget for the State Attorney Appellate Prosecutor, the State Attorney Appellate Defender, and the Judicial Inquiry Board. The total FY04 request for the State Appellate Prosecutor is $15,444,060; $7,425,794 is GRF, $8,018,266 are other funds. There was an Amendment to House Bill 2289. Amendment #1 added 2.7 million GRF for a grant to the Cook County State’s Attorney for help in filing appeals. That’s the budget for the State’s Attorney… State Attorney Appellate Prosecutor. The total FY04 request for the State Appellate Defender is $22,481,263; $19,054… 053,263, I’m sorry, is GRF, 3,428,000 are other funds. House Amendment #1 added 500,000 additional GRF for helping filings for the State Appellate Defender and House Amendment #1 added a hundred and fifty- seven thousand for an expungement information program. That’s the budget for the State Appellate Defender. The budget for the Judicial Inquiry Board, the FY04 request is $670,500 GRF and it represents no change from the Governor’s recommended level. I’d be glad to answer any questions.”
“Is there any discussion on this question? The Gentleman from Cook, Mr. Acevedo.” 09300060.doc 66 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor will yield.”
“Charles, is it your intent that $2.7 million figure is to be a grant to the Cook County State’s Attorneys Office for expenses incurred by its criminal appeals division for not filing appeals but also for responding to filed criminal appeals?”
“Yes, that’s true, Representative Acevedo.”
“Is it your intent that this money is appropriated to even the playing field between the Cook County State’s Attorneys Office and the Appellate Defenders Office in the handling of criminal appeals?”
“That’s true, Representative.”
“Is it your intent that this Bill… that these monies appropriated to Cook County State’s Attorney are to be spent at the sole discretion of the state’s attorneys?”
“That’s…”
“Cook County State’s Attorney.”
“Yes, that’s true, Representative Acevedo.”
“Is it your intent that no other state or county agency or office other than the Cook County State’s Attorney has the direction of the expenditure of these grant monies?”
“Yes, that’s true, Representative Acevedo.”
“Thank you, Representative. No further questions.”
“Thank you. Further discussion? The Gentleman from Vermilion, Mr. Black.” 09300060.doc 67 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker and Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. Just very briefly again and I don’t wanna beat the dead horse because the horse I’ve been riding I think died last week, but dogonit the additions put over $3 million into the Cook County State’s Attorneys Office. That would run the state’s attorneys office in my home county for about two and a half years. So, ya know, and I don’t wanna inject regionalism in everything we do here. I love Chicago, I love Cook County. I know there’s a heck of a lot more people that live there than live in my district, but at some point, ya know, I have to go back home as does the chairman of the approp committee that we’re dealing with and do all of you, but at some point I have to answer, ya know, the constant additions and transfers and the money that seems to be flowing north that didn’t… didn’t always flow in that direction. And it again, it’s for that reason and no other reason I’ll vote ‘no’ on the budget.”
“Further discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 2289 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 79… 78 voting ‘yes’, 39 voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’. Having reached the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 2289 is hereby declared passed. The Chair is prepared to entertain appropriation 09300060.doc 68 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 Bills dealing with higher education. Representative Slone on House Bill 3726. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill, please.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3726, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“The Lady from Peoria, Ms. Slone.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen. House Bill 3726 is the budget Bill for the Board of Higher Education. It is a… includes a net decrease in spending authority of $72 million. Much of that is because the Illinois Century Network Program has been changed in the Governor’s budget from the Board of Higher Education to the Illinois Century Network… excuse me, to the Central Management Services Department. The proposed budget is… includes $59,169,700 in GRF for a total budget of $80,885,800. I would appreciate your ‘aye’ votes and be pleased to answer any questions.”
“Thank you. Is there any discussion? Mr. Myers.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor will yield.”
“Representative Slone, as we discussed in committee yesterday the Motion to adopt an Amendment which would’ve included some additional funding for the EXITE Program and the MidAmerica Chinese Training Center. Those… that Motion was tabled and those dollars are not in this budget. Is that correct?”
“That is correct. This is at the Governor’s introduced level, the original Bill without the Amendment.” 09300060.doc 69 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Okay. And are you prepared to come forward with an Amendment for the EXITE program at some time in the future?”
“I would think so, Mr. Myers, we’ll find a way to take care of that program, yes.”
“Thank you.”
Speaker Novak: “Any further discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3726 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 88 voting ‘yes’, 28 voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’. And having reached the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3726 is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3727. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill, please.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3727, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Ms. Slone.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. House Bill 3727 is the budget for the Chicago State University. The total fiscal ‘04 request from the Governor’s Office was for $41,053,546 in… mostly in GRF with a small amount of other funding. House Amendment 1 on the Bill as part of a $10 million restoration back into GRF for the state universities, that was agreed on in committee. Chicago State University will receive a restoration of $293,246, that is included in the budget. I’d be happy to answer any questions.” 09300060.doc 70 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Is there any discussion? The Gentleman from McDonough, Mr. Myers.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor will yield.”
“Ricca, wasn’t there also something else added back in for Chicago State?”
“I’m sorry, I forgot to mention the financial assistance outreach center, that’s right, Mr. Myers, and that’s in there for a quarter of a million dollars. That’s right. That is also included.”
“Can you explain why that was deleted originally and why it’s been added back in and what is the financial assistance center?”
“The financial assistance outreach center provides college… counselors to assist the students in some of the area high schools. In many instances they’re the first in their families ever to attend college and they do some outreach to help make it possible for these students to get to school by providing them with financial aid. The financial assistance outreach center doesn’t directly provide financial aid, but it helps those kids in assembling a financial package so they can go to college.”
“What was the reason why it was eliminated or written out of the budget to begin with?”
“It was done previously in a grant through another state agency and that… that grant was at its… at it’s end it was, I think, a multi-year grant and it was ending, so it was decided to put it directly into Chicago State’s budget.” 09300060.doc 71 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Okay. Thank you.”
Speaker Novak: “Any further discussion? Mr. Myers, your light’s still on. Okay. Seeing no further discussion, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3727 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 83 voting ‘yes’, 34 voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’. And having received the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3727 is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3728. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3728, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Ms. Slone.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. House Bill 3728 is the fiscal ‘04 budget for Governors State University. The Governor’s request for Governors State was $24,366,158 and as part of the $10 million restoration, Governors State will receive a restoration of an additional approximately $186 thousand. I’d be happy to answer any questions.”
“Is there any discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3728 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 82 voting ‘yes’, 34 voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’. And having reached the 09300060.doc 72 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3728 is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3729. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3729, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Ms. Slone.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen. House Bill 3729 is the appropriations Bill for Northeastern Illinois University. The total fiscal year '04 Governor’s request was approximately $42 million in GRF and other funds and Northeastern Illinois will receive approximately $300 thousand in the restoration. I’d be pleased to answer any questions.”
“Is there any discussion? Hearing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3729 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Lang. Mr. Capparelli. Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 85 voting ‘yes’, 32 voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’. And having reached the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3729 is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3730. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill, please.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3730, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Ms. Slone.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen. House Bill 3730 is the appropriations Bill for Western Illinois 09300060.doc 73 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 University. It’s approximately $56 million and as part of the $10 million restoration that was done by the Higher Education Appropriations Committee, Western Illinois will receive approximately $430 thousand in additional funds as part of its appropriation. I’d be happy to answer any questions.”
“Is there any discussion? The Gentleman from Rock Island, Mr. Boland.”
“Yes, thank you. Will the Lady yield?”
“Sponsor yields.”
“Is the… the money that some of us had requested for Western Illinois University, their quad-city campus, is that included in this or is that in the capital budget?”
“Right, this is an operating budget Bill only, Mr. Boland, but we anticipate that that budget will be handled through the capital Bill.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
Speaker Novak: “Any further discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3730 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 89 voting ‘yes’, 28 voting ‘zero’(sic-‘no’), 0 voting ‘present’. And having reached the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3730 is hereby declared passed. Mr. Clerk, what is the status of House Bill 3738?” 09300060.doc 74 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3738 is on the Order of House Bills-Third Reading.”
“Put that Bill back on the Order of Second. House Bill 3731. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill, please.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3731, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Ms. Slone.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen. House Bill 3731 is the budget Bill for the Illinois State University. The total FY04 request is approximately $81 million and ISU will receive back approximately $620 thousand as part of the restoration, about one percent of the eight percent cut back as did the other universities. I’d be happy to answer any questions.”
“Is there any discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3731 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 88 voting ‘yes’, 29 voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’. And having reached the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3731 is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3732. Mr. Clerk, please read the Bill.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3732, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Ms. Slone.” 09300060.doc 75 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The… House Bill 3732 is the budget for Northern Illinois University. The total fiscal year ‘04 request was $102,592,000 and Northern’s restoration as amended in committee would be about $783 thousand. That’s included in that figure. I’d be happy to take any questions.”
“Is there any discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3732 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Mr. Scully. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 88 voting ‘yes’, 27 voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’. And having reached the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3732 is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3733. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill, please.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3733, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Ms. Slone.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen. House Bill 3733 is the budget for Southern Illinois University. The total FY04 request is approximately $218 million and SIU’s restoration amount is $1,657,300. I’d be happy to answer any questions. I should add, by the way, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bureau of the Budget has restored or will restore about $1.8 million to SIU’s School of Medicine to reflect some direct patient care services because those are 09300060.doc 76 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 exempt from the Governor’s reductions. Again, I’d be happy to take any questions.”
“Is there any discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3733 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Poe. Mr. Wait. Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 87 voting ‘yes’, 30 voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’. And having reached the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3733 is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3734. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill, please.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3734, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Ms. Slone.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen. This is the University of Illinois budget. The total FY04 request for the University of Illinois in GRF and other state funds is just over $829 million. As part of the 10 million restoration, the University of Illinois will receive an additional $5,362,412. I’d be happy to answer any questions.”
“Thank you. And on that question the Lady from Cook, Ms. Davis.” Davis, M.: “Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Yes, Ma’am.” 09300060.doc 77 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 Davis, M.: “Representative Slone, the $10 million that the Governor… I imagine it’s being placed back into the university budget. Is that correct?”
“That’s correct, Representative Davis.” Davis, M.: “Representative, can you tell me why the University of Illinois gets almost fifty-four percent of those dollars and Chicago State gets less than three percent, Governors State gets less than two percent?”
“Yes, Representative Davis, what we did with the 10 million that was restored in committee is we took pro rata, the amount of GRF for each university, whatever percentage of GRF that they got before, they got the same percentage of the restoration. So, the smaller schools got a smaller percentage.” Davis, M.: “So, in other words, if you were already bloated in a budget then we just helped you to increase that bloat and if you were already negatively impacted with the amount that you received from the state then you were given a meager pittance of that $10 million.”
“Representative Davis, the decision that was made was that…” Davis, M.: “Let me ask you this, Representative, how many employees are at the University of Illinois?”
“We think it’s on the order of just under 23 thousand, Representative Davis.” Davis, M.: “You have a head count of 223 thousand. How many of those are…”
“Twenty-two thousand. Twenty-two thousand.” 09300060.doc 78 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 Davis, M.: “Two hundred twenty… You have 23 thousand employees. How many of those are African American, Representative?”
“Just a moment, Representative Davis, we’ll get that for you. Thirty-five hundred and seventy-one. Sixteen percent.” Davis, M.: “Well, it’s almost 16 percent. Representative, how many students are at the University of Illinois?”
“I think at all three campuses, Representative, there are about 71 thousand students this year.” Davis, M.: “Representative, do you have a breakdown in reference to how many African-American students are attending the University of Illinois?”
“I’m sorry, Representative Davis, I couldn’t hear you. Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, could we ask for a little quiet in the chamber, I can’t hear Representative Davis.” Davis, M.: “I asked, first of all…”
“Shh.” Davis, M.: “…do you know the total number of students who attend the University of Illinois and the second part of that is how many of those are African-American students?”
“We think that the University of Illinois has approximately 71 thousand students, that’s based on the testimony that we heard in committee. I don’t know if we have data on what percentage of the student body is African American. The staff informs me that it is available from the university’s website. I don’t think I… we have that. We can certainly get it for you.” 09300060.doc 79 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 Davis, M.: “Do you have the number of professors at the University of Illinois? Is there a breakdown of professors?”
“No, we just have a total staff breakdown, Representative.” Davis, M.: “To the Bill, Mr. Speaker. I requested…”
“To the Bill.” Davis, M.: “I requested from every university who is getting state dollars to provide for this committee, our committee or me, the number of African Americans who attend their… who attend their college and the number of African Americans who work in those colleges. And the reason I requested that, Mr. Speaker, is because I’ve been a Legislator 17 years and I see very little progress in hiring African-American professors and especially at the University of Illinois. It behooves all of us to realize when universities get state dollars all citizens should get a fair shake. A professor should not have to leave Illinois to be treated like a professor, given tenure, they shouldn’t have to go to Indiana or a private university because the University of Illinois refuses to give tenure to people of color. Representative Slone, I don’t want to support this budget. I don’t wanna support the unfairness that occurs between a poor university like the Chicago State and Governors State and then help to give a big bloat to an already rich university. There’s a vast disparity there and it’s time for it to end. I’m gonna vote ‘no’ on this budget, because the University of Illinois refused to 09300060.doc 80 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 get a message, they refused to hear this message. And African-American people who go to college and get degrees have a right to become professors who are tenured in a state university, using state dollars. I urge a ‘no’ vote.”
Speaker Novak: “Further discussion? The Gentleman from McDonough, Mr. Myers.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor will yield.”
“Thank you. Representative Slone, according to our figures, since 2002 higher ed has experienced a cut of $242 million, again, just since 2002, of which approximately a hundred and ten million of that has been the University of Illinois. The figures that you cited the previous Representative asked the question that… that the $10 million was prorated, so the 5 million is based on their current budget figures and how it’s…”
“As a share of the whole.”
“…the ratio. Okay. Do your figures, and I should’ve asked this at the start of your discussion or your number of Bills for the universities. Do they reflect the requests of the Governor and the director of the Bureau of the Budget for the universities to use more of their income funds in their academic program area?”
“Mr. Myers, can you be a little… can you explain what you’re asking me a little better so I can understand what you’re… I’m not sure I understand what you’re asking me.” 09300060.doc 81 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“We are… today we are passing budgets, appropriating General Revenue Funds and other state funds to the universities in the nine university system in the State of Illinois. But the universities also have their other dollars, mainly income funds as the primary source of other dollars. There has been much discussion in the Higher Education-Appropriation Committee regarding those income funds and how much each university has and how they use those income funds. There has been attempts per haps requiring the universities to resubmit those income funds back to the state and in all of that discussion we have attempted to ascertain how the universities use those funds in detail. Does the budget… do the budgets that we have already voted on and the last one, that we’re about to vote on, reflect the request or the desire of this administration to the universities to use more of their income funds and less of the General Revenue Funds?”
“Okay. I think… I’m not sure if, I mean, please follow-up if we’re not answering what you’re wanting to know. These Bills… these Bills reflect only the General Revenue Fund portion of the universities’ budgets. As you know and as you mentioned, we don’t appropriate the university income funds anymore. Since we lump sum appropriate to the universities GRF and education assistance funds we exercise relatively little control over how the university allocates its expenditures, any of the universities, among… among their income funds, their GRF and their other sources of revenue. And they do have other 09300060.doc 82 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 sources of revenue, such as, research grants and student fees for dormitories and bookstore sales and sports and so on. But there’s certainly no question that there will be more pressure on the income funds because of the reductions in the General Revenue Funds.”
“But there is nothing specific in here that says that these universities have to use their income funds to fill the hole, so to speak, that we’re leaving with the universities by cutting their budgets and since…”
“No, it doesn’t require that they do that, there’s no such mandate.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“Further discussion? The Lady from Champaign, Ms. Jakobsson.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor yields.”
“I just wanted to talk to this a bit. I know the University of Illinois with its large three campuses will be able to use this to meet… help meet the core mission of the university and make sure that the students are getting the education. Maybe they can restore some of the sections or classes that have had to have been canceled and look at perhaps giving some of the faculty or all the faculty some raise which they have not gotten for the last couple of years. So, I urge an ‘aye’ vote.”
Speaker Novak: “Further discussion? The Gentleman from DeKalb, Mr. Wirsing.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?” 09300060.doc 83 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Sponsor will yield.”
“Representative, can you… there’s been discussion about the amount of put back of this $10 million and the amount of dollars going to the smaller university… public universities versus the larger public university. Can you give me the numbers of… a sense of those numbers of the amount of cuts that have… that have… are made in from the budget… the Governor’s budget in the ‘04 year and even the additional cuts that have already been made in the ‘03, in the current year? Give me an idea of how many dollars have been cut in the University of Illinois’ budget, how many dollars have been cut in like Chicago State or Governors State or Northeastern.”
“Mr. Wirsing, the cuts that the Governor made in the GRF for the universities were an approximate amount of 8.2 percent of the previous fiscal year’s GRF across the board. So, each university has a different amount, but the percentage is the same across the board and I think it was approximately the same in terms of the reserves that the Governor requested for the current fiscal year. So, 8.2 percent from the FY03 and approximately 8.2 percent, I believe or right around in there for the… is proposed for the FY04 budgets. And it’s the same for ea… the dollar amount is different for each university, but the percentage is about the same.”
“Representative, what I’m trying to get at here, is the issue’s has been raised about there’s more money going to the University of Illinois than there is Chicago State. 09300060.doc 84 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 And the… the word ‘bloat’ was used and I’m very upset in that using that word is very troublesome to me. It’s been… it was used in the Appropriations Committee by another individual and as you know that’s a very upsetting word to me. What I’m trying to get at is that if we look at those two numbers, the University of Illinois being the largest university of the nine and Chicago State being one of the smaller ones and the differential in dollars, what I’m trying to get at is what are the dollars that were cut, have already been cut in ‘03 and are proposed in the ‘04 budget from the Governor’s budget for the University of Illinois and what were the dollar cuts for Chicago State University? Can you help me out here?”
“We’re gonna try, Mr. Wirsing. Just a moment.”
“Well, I think the point here is, if we’re going to get up and make those kind of comments and comparisons then we better do apples to apples. And I think that if you can come up with those numbers, you’ll see that the University of Illinois has been cut by several million dollars already and Chicago State, because of size, has not been cut by several million dollars. So, if we’re gonna… if we’re gonna… if we’re gonna raise the issue of this minimal $10 million put back that the larger university is getting fatter and the smaller university is not, then we also have to look at the amount of dollars that are being cut for those universities to really have a good, accurate comparison so the Body as a whole understands what’s going on in higher education relative to the Governor’s proposed 09300060.doc 85 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 budget and relative to these additions, minimal as they are of the $10 million. That’s where I’m going and that’s what I’m trying to seek out. My point is, U of I has been already cut a hundred and ten million. Can you give me Chicago State’s numbers that they’ve been cut? And I’m not picking on anybody, I’m just trying to get a true accurate picture of what’s been going on here relative to higher education.”
“Okay. Yeah, Representative Wirsing, Chicago State’s fiscal ‘03 appropriation, which I think is from before the reserve or rescission that the Governor requested, was 41… approximately $41,500,000 thousand and their FY02 Governor’s request was for $36,677,000 thousand in GRF. Right, about a $5 million reduction. For the University of Illinois…”
“What… repeat Chicago State’s dollar reduction.”
“About… about five million…”
“And that’s including…”
“…a little under… 4.8 million.”
“That’s including ‘04’s proposed budget from the Governor?”
“That’s between the FY03 appropriated amount and the Governor’s… Governor’s request, yes.”
“About four billion… 4 million.”
“4.8 million, closer to 5 million.”
“And U of I’s is a hundred and twenty some million, if my memory serves me correctly.” 09300060.doc 86 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“All right. For the University of Illinois, Representative Wirsing, the fiscal year ‘03 appropriation was six hundred and sixty-seven and a half… six hundred and sixty-seven and a half million dollars. The FY04 Governor’s request was six hundred and nine and half million dollars, for a dollar amount change of approximately $58 million…”
“Are you…”
“…decrease… reduction.”
“Now, you’re’ sure you’re including the reduction… the payback that the universities made in ’03, in the current…”
“No, that doesn’t include, for either university, that doesn’t include that amount.” Wirsing: “Well, I… ‘cause I think if you include that you’re getting near the… you’re more… Well, I think my point is made here that the ratios are the same whether it’s… whether it’s more dollars put in… putting into each of the nine universities or whether it’s been the cuts that have been made, it’s all prorated on the base of simply the size. They all serve different numbers of students per university and that equates to different levels of dollars. I’m just trying to get an accurate picture so that the Members of the Legis… House here understand what the differential is and they don’t go away not having a good apple to apple comparison. Thank you, Representative.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you. Further discussion? The Gentleman from Vermilion, Mr. Black. Any further discussion? Seeing 09300060.doc 87 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3734 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Colvin, for what reason do you rise?”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I…”
“Mr… Mr. Colvin, we’ll get to you after this vote. Okay. I’m sorry. Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 91 voting ‘yes’, 25 voting ‘no’, 1 voting ‘present’. And having received the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3734 is hereby declared passed. Mr. Colvin, for what reason do you rise, Sir?”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to point out and ask my colleagues to help welcome back one of our former colleagues, Alderman Todd Stroger, from the 8th Ward in the City of Chicago.”
“Welcome, Mr. Stroger. It’s good seeing you. Mr. Eddy, for what reason do you rise, Sir?”
“Thank you. I just need to have the record reflect that on House Bill 3732 I did not get my switch punched and I’d like to be recorded as a ‘yes’, 3732.”
“The record will reflect that, Sir.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you. House Bill 3735. Read the Bill, Mr. Clerk.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3735, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Ms. Slone.” 09300060.doc 88 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen. House Bill 3735 is the budget for the Illinois Community College Board. It represents the state’s share of support for our 48 community colleges. The fiscal ‘04 request is for $406 million and the Bill is at the Governor’s introduced level. I’d be happy to take any questions.”
“Is there any discussion? And on that question, Mr. Black, the Gentleman from Vermilion.”
“Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor will yield.”
“Representative, can you give me a reason why the Advanced Technology Grant that the community colleges have used wisely, the audits show their administrative expense was miniscule and yet that twelve million four hundred some thousand dollar Advance Technology Grant was transferred in toto to CMS. Can you… can you give me any reason why that was done in the Governor’s introductive… introdu… budget as introduced?”
“No. With all due respect, Mr. Black, I don’t know why.”
“Yeah, I… Mr. Speaker, to the Bill.”
“To the Bill.”
“There isn’t anybody in this room that doesn’t represent a community college. Community college districts now cover every square inch of the State of Illinois. We have 54 campuses. I have said before and I will say again, and I worked for a community college for about 10 years, probably 09300060.doc 89 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 the most enjoyable ten years of my life. It probably is the best kept secret in the State of Illinois, but this is the institution that many of us turn to for adult education, for GED, when we have a plant closure. Who’s on the scene to come up with a skills upgrading class in a matter of weeks? Whether it’s computer training or specific skills, if you’re lucky enough to get a new employer in your district, again, who do you turn to to help train the workforce, you turn to the community college system. They are the light cavalry of higher education in this state. They do an outstanding job and ya know, they’re a little different than the university. They have a property tax component and the formula is supposed to be a third of their revenue in property tax, a third of their revenue in tuition and a third from the state, that was the way it was set up. In the last two years, the GRF appropriations have been down 4.2 percent and next year down 6.7 percent. I think that’s unconscionable when you have 49 institutions that have a long and proud history of serving the people of this state. The average age of a community college student is in… well into the tw… probably in the 30s. They are a completely different kind of institution. Yes, they can offer a baccalaureate transfer programs, but where I have seen them make the difference in economically depressed areas is in skills upgrading, adult education, GED, English as a second language. They are truly an open-door institution that make a difference every day in the lives of some of the people that we represent. 09300060.doc 90 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 I think it’s unconscionable to cut their GRF funding. But the reason even if we didn’t, I will not vote for any Bill that takes out the Advanced Technology Grant, takes it away from the Community College Board where the administrative expenses were praised as being among the lowest of any grant program in the State of Illinois. And that’s the grant that maintains their computer system, their computer technology, their ability to teach new computer skills to a worker who may be 40 years old who is losing their job in Galesburg, or who is losing their job in Danville, as we’ve suffered through plant closures, or is losing or have lost their job in Decatur. There is no earthly reason that I can discover why that grant was transferred from the Community College Board to Central Management Services. Now, I’ve been told, oh, don’t worry, Representative, they’ll get every dollar of that grant. That’s baloney, you know it and I know it, CMS will take a hefty administrative fee out of that grant. There’s no reason for it, no earthly reason has been given to anybody for that transfer. And for us to sit here and vote to harm the one institution that day after day after day when you need them and you call them, they’re there to train workers in new skills, to bring somebody who recently immigrated to this country to teach them English as a second language, to take somebody who wasn’t able to finish high school years ago and get them their GED and then phase them into classes of technological or baccalaureate skills that can improve their chances and enhance their quality of life. I think 09300060.doc 91 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 it’s unconscionable what we’re doing to a frontline higher education system that has done the job in this year… in this state year after year after year. Don’t cut the community college system, it is all that’s keeping some of us in economically distressed areas alive. Not all of us got a riverboat under the original economically distressed language. It’s the community college that I turn to, to educate my people that I represent, to educate adults and children and people who want to go back to school or have to go back to school because of the changing economy in this state. Support your community college system. Vote ‘no’ on this Bill.”
“Thank you. Further discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3735 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. McGuire. Is Mr. McGuire voting? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 78 voting ‘yes’, 39 voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’. And having received the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3735 is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3736. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill, please.”
Clerk Bolin: “House Bill 3736, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this Senate (sic-House) Bill.”
“Ms. Slone.” 09300060.doc 92 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Thank you. Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen. House Bill 3736 is the budget for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. It is the agency that provides the MAP grants to our college students. The proposed FY04 budget is $404,355,000 in GRF and other funds for a total budget of $713 million. This is a very tiny decrease in GRF and as under the Governor’s introduced budget, it held the Monetary Award Program harmless, reduced administrative expenditures. The budget includes four… just a little over $4 million for Illinois Future Teachers Corps Scholarships. It includes a partial restoration of the fifth-year MAP grant as amended. And I’d be happy to take any questions.”
Speaker Novak: “Further discussion? The Gentleman from McDonough, Mr. Myers.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor will yield.”
“Representative Slone, you’ve mentioned that the 12 million add back partially restores the fifth-year MAP grant. Approximately what percentage of the previous fifth-year MAP grants does this restore?”
“About 60 percent, Mr. Myers.”
“About 60 percent. Are there any restrictions on how this fifth-year MAP grant will be used? Does it only apply to those in a fifth-year program… five-year programs or does it apply to anyone who’s willing to or unable to complete their education in four years?”
“It applies to both, Representative Myers. Neither group of students will be excluded, the language does not 09300060.doc 93 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 do that. My understanding is that the… that qualified students who apply in their fifth year will be funded without regard to whether they’re in a five-year program or not.”
“And the MAP grant follows the student, it doesn’t necessarily make any difference what school they’re going to. It could be community colleges, it could be in the case of the fifth-year MAP grant, a private or public institution, but it follows the student. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that’s correct, Representative Myers. Yes.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“Further discussion? The Gentleman from Cook, Mr. Giles.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield for a question?”
“Sponsor will yield.”
“Representative Slone, following the previous speaker who asked question about the MAP program, what was the cut… could you give me the amount of the cut from fiscal year 2… ‘02 in this program?”
“From ‘02 to ‘03, Representative Giles?”
“Yes, ‘02, ‘03.”
“Is that what you want? Jus… just… can you give us just a moment and we’ll get it for you. All right. Representative Giles, in FY02… ‘03, the MAP was reduced $38 million from the ‘02 level.”
“Thirty-eight million?”
“Yes.” 09300060.doc 94 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Is that the number you came up with? Okay. I have 40…”
“Yes, that’s the number that that staff gave us.”
“Okay. Representative, could you tell me or could maybe staff or someone tell me, how many…”
“Excuse me, Mr. Giles, just a moment. Mr. Speaker, I can’t hear Mr. Giles.”
Speaker Novak: “Ladies and Gentlemen, could we have some attention, please.”
“Representative, once again, the… we’re cutting… the initial budget is 38 million and we’re cutting by 20 million. Is that correct?”
“Thirty-eight million was cut…”
“From the Monetary Award Program.”
“Thirty-eight million was cut in fiscal ‘03.”
“Okay. Thirty-eight million was cut?”
“In ‘03 from ‘02. And then in ‘04…”
“What are we proposing in ‘04?”
“The board is restoring 40 million for MAP and…”
“And…”
“…that includes 17 million to… I’m sorry, the BHE recommended a $40 million increase and they’re not getting that much. The Governor’s level holds it the same as it was in ‘03 and… and the committee is… has restored by Amendment, 12 million.”
“Twelve million. So, help me, because I wanna be straight on the numbers. The initial amount of the grant for fiscal year ‘02-‘03 is how much?” 09300060.doc 95 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Strictly for the MAP grant or overall… their overall money?”
“The MAP grant, the MAP. Representative, I’m…”
“The total…”
“…concerned about the MAP grant.”
“Okay. The total value of MAP awards in fiscal ‘03 for all universities, okay, was $336,465,000.”
“And the Governor proposed cut is exactly how much?”
“The Governor’s proposed budget for fiscal ‘04, for MAP, is $336,347,200, which is almost exactly the same as the ‘03 amount. In addition, the committee restored $12 million to fund the fifth-year MAP, which was a relatively small part of total before last year. And if you recall last year, Representative Giles, we did not fund the fifth- year MAP at all.”
“Okay. I guess that’s what I’m trying to get at. The exact amount… what is the amount… or can someone tell me the amount that was not funded? If we’re restoring 12 million, what are we lacking?”
“Okay. Representative Giles, the 38 million that was lost last year my understanding is that that was… that was the… those were the fifth-year MAP grants. So, we’re restoring 12 million and it’s still 26 million less than it was at one time.”
“Okay. Representative, could someone approximately tell me how many students that will equate to the amount of individuals that will be affected… that will not be affected? Approximately how many students are we talking 09300060.doc 96 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 about that will not be able to receive the MAP grant because of the… the lack of funding?”
“Well, Rep…”
“The fifth-year, the fifth-year.”
“Representative Giles, the grant is about $5,000 a student. So, we’d have to… right. We would have to, ya know, divide 12 million by 5 thousand to tell you how many kids will get awards and then 26 million divided by 5 thousand would tell us how many won’t. But clearly we’re, ya know, we’re funding about a third of as many students as we were able to fund at one time.”
“All right. Thank you, Representative, for trying to answer the questions. Let me just simply say that, ya know, I think this is one of the most vital programs and one of the most popular programs in the State of Illinois when it comes to higher education, making sure that individuals and students have the opportunity that… that would not have had any other outlet or resources to be able to pay for college. Ya know, this is a program that I would like to see restored to its original amount… to the full amount, so that all students of that fifth-year will have the opportunity and no one is left behind. Ya know, we have… we have a President that has a program that has No Child Left Behind. But once that individual gets to higher education on that level and we’re trying to make sure that that individual is purely qualified to go into the workforce, we need to continue to create opportunities to make sure that that person has those opportunities in the 09300060.doc 97 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 State of Illinois. So, I would continue to fight for and request that the funding be restored at the original level and that we give all those students from a fifth-year of eligibility to be able to qualify and receive this particular grant. Thank you.”
“Thank you. Further discussion? The Gentleman from Cook, Mr. Joyce.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. As many of you saw, anyone that was on this committee, the Higher Ed-Appropriations Committee, you all know and everyone here knows that there was no money for fifth-year MAP. I would agree with the previous speaker. There was no money there last year, there was none appropriated by the Governor for this year. This money was restored. Let me… let me be very clear, the people that take advantage of the fifth-year MAP program are students that have… that have to leave college because they have to go to work, because they can’t afford tuition because they have to have a part-time job and go to school at the same time. This is a good program and a lot of people will vote against some of these appropriations Bills. We are restoring something that disappeared last year. This brings value to all of our communities, to all of our students throughout the whole state. So, I’d urge an ‘aye’ vote on this Bill.”
“Thank you. Further discussion? The Gentleman from Cook, Mr. Davis, Will Davis.” Davis, W.: “Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?” 09300060.doc 98 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Sponsor will yield.” Davis, W.: “I’m reading in the analysis where it says Committee Amendment #1, which cleaned up several technical errors in the original Bill, which included a duplicate line of $6.1 million from the Governor’s introduced Bill. Is that correct?”
“That’s right, Mr. Davis, yes.” Davis, W.: “So… so that was an extra 6.1 million that the Governor put in the Bill which was a duplicate for something else.”
“That was federal money, Representative Davis, that was duplicated in there, it’s not… there’s no GRF involved in that.” Davis, W.: “There was no GRF in that?”
“No, but the budget… the overall total for their… the agency is reduced by that amount of federal money that was in there twice.” Davis, W.: “Okay. That answers my question. Thank you.”
Speaker Novak: “Further discussion? The Lady from Cook, Representative Davis, Monique Davis.” Davis, M.: “Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do realize we’ve had two people to speak about the MAP grant, but I think the significance of this program requires strong voices to support the restoration of that MAP grant dollar. What happens to a student who can’t complete college in four years? Even a teaching degree, many times, will require that fifth year. An engineering degree requires that fifth year. Working parents might need the fifth year. What 09300060.doc 99 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 we’re saying in Illinois is, education is important to us but how much are we willing to appropriate toward what we mouth. We mouth that education is significant and a mind is a terrible thing to waste and yet we’re really half stepping when we appropriate less than half of what was appropriated prior… in prior years. Representative Slone, am I correct that the ‘02… fiscal ‘02 budget had, was it 40 million for the fifth-year MAP grant? For the total…”
“Representative Davis, we think it’s around 38 million.” Davis, M.: “And that was for the fifth-year?”
“Yes, we think so.” Davis, M.: “All right. It was 38 million for the fifth-year in the MAP grant. We have restored only what, Representative Slone?”
“Approximately, one-third.” Davis, M.: “One-third.”
“Approximately, one-third.” Davis, M.: “So what…”
“Enough to… enough to support 25 hundred students who would not have been supported under the Governor’s budget.” Davis, M.: “Enough to support 25 hundred students. Is that correct?”
“I’m sorry, Representative Davis…” Davis, M.: “Enough to support how many, Representative?”
“At about $5,000 per student, it would be about 24 hundred students.” Davis, M.: “And actually that program actually supports about how many students?” 09300060.doc 100 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“I’m sorry, Representative…” Davis, M.: “When it’s fully funded, how many students does it support?”
“Well, it would, I guess support approximately…” Davis, M.: “About eight thousand.”
“Yes, about eight…” Davis, M.: “So…”
“…probably eight thousand or in that order.” Davis, M.: “So… so, in other words, we’ve been given it a little trickle down to make people be quiet. Well, let’s not be quiet about the fifth-year for the MAP grant. Those dollars are needed. They’re needed for education. And this should be one of the things people demand if you want somebody to vote for gambling, ya know what I’m saying? Part of those dollars maybe should go to restore the fifth- year fully. Now, I’m urging… I’m not saying vote ‘no’ on the budget, but let’s send a strong message to the Governor and our four Leaders that the fifth-year MAP grant is important to the citizens in the State of Illinois. Thank you.”
Speaker Novak: “Further discussion? The Lady from Cook, Representative Jones, Lou Jones.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Members of the House. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor will yield.”
“I’m not clear on the… I know it’s 12 million now that you’re restoring back. Right? Now, there’s three levels of that fifth-year. I don’t know if you’re aware of that 09300060.doc 101 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 or not. Now, that $12 million, is that for all three levels or who determines, excuse me, who determines who gets that $12 million?”
“Okay.”
“I’m concerned about is it all going to the traditional or is it all going to the part-time or is it all going to the kids who just cannot cut that four… that four years?”
“Representative Jones, the… all of the fifth-year students… applicants would be elig… ya know, who are otherwise eligible, would be eligible to apply. I think they just keep funding the kids who are eligible right up until they run out of money. So, what I would… what I would say is particularly for your students… your part-time students and your students who are taking more than four years to finish a four-year program because they have to work and so on, those students, the best advice I can say is, I would like to see us restore the whole amount if we could, make sure your students get their applications in early before they run out of money. But there’s no specification in the appropriation. They can use it for any fifth-year student, whether they’re in a five-year program or whether they’re taking a little longer to finish, whatever.”
“That’s… that’s my problem. My problem is that, who… ISAC administers this. Am I correct?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Who administers this… the program?”
“The Illinois Student Assistance Commission.” 09300060.doc 102 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“I’m afraid without any guidelines that all… whatever children that will be helped from the 12 million, if it’s up to them to determine, I’m afraid that a couple… a couple of levels or maybe one level of that money might not get to where it’s supposed to be. And I don’t like… I don’t like the fact that they will be the ones determining who will benefit from the $12 million.”
“Representative Jones, it’s the same the program has always been and my understanding from just talking to the ISAC staff is that they know that they are fifth-year students because that must be part of the application. And in the last fiscal year when we didn’t put any funding for fifth-year students, if the kids said they were fifth-year, they just…”
“We understand it’s for fifth-year…”
“…your application would not have been considered.”
“…but there’s three levels in that fifth-year.”
“Right. And they don’t know.”
“And I’m concerned as to who is going to be in control to administer that $12 million.”
“It will be the Illinois Student Assistance…”
“Right, you already told me that.”
“…Commission as they have in the past.”
“Will it… will it be distributed equally between the three levels?”
“No, it will be first come first serve, the way it is now and the way it was before for fifth-year students.” 09300060.doc 103 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“That’s the problem. Ya know, I have to agree with the former speaker that this is one of the most important pieces of legislation that… that we will have and it does not… there’s no group… there’s no specific group of students that this will go through. This can be all over the state, all children that cannot afford to pay their tuition no matter if they green, white or polka-dot. And I think that of everything that we have done that at least we could restore back the $38 million and put it back to its original… where it was originally. And I for one urge a ‘no’ vote.”
“Is there further discussion? Mr. Davis, you spoke in debate. Okay. Your light is still on. Thank you, Sir. The Gentleman from DeKalb, Mr. Wirsing.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just need to make a few comments, ‘cause once again, I wanna make sure we have a clarity on relative to higher education issues. The 12… the $12 million that’s being presented here as an add-on in the MAP program is 60 percent of what the total funding is needed. In other words, $20 million would cover all of the fifth-year based upon the ‘03 year’s budget and the average grant per student is around $26 hundred per student. So, this is a significant amount of dollars going to the fifth- year MAP. It’s 60 percent of what the total funding would be. So, as an add-on, at least in my opinion, this is a significant amount of dollars given the fact we don’t have a revenue stream and it’s a bad budget year. But I just 09300060.doc 104 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 wanna make… clarify that, that it takes 20 million to fully fund it and we’re adding 12 million. Thank you.”
“Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3736 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 85 voting ‘yes’, 26 voting ‘no’, 6 voting ‘present’. And having reached the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3736 is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3737. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill, please.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3737, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Ms. Slone.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen. House Bill 3737 provides the budget for the Illinois State Universities Civil Service System. The total FY04 request was $1,253,600 and this is the Governor’s budget at the Governor’s introduced level. I’d be happy to take any questions.”
“Is there any discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3737 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. The voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 91 voting ‘yes’, 26 voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’. And having reached the 09300060.doc 105 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3737 is hereby declared passed. House Bill 3739. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill, please.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3739, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Ms. Slone.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen. House Bill 3739 is the budget for Eastern Illinois University. The total FY04 request was just under $55 million in GRF and other funds. And as part of the $10 million restoration that we’ve been discussing, Eastern Illinois University, excuse me, will receive a restoration of $366,338. I’d be happy to take any questions.”
Speaker Novak: “And on that question, the Gentleman from Champaign, Mr. Rose.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor will yield.”
“Representative, just to make sure that the appropriation… additional appropriation, the $366 thousand, that’s part of the per capita of the $10 million. Is that correct?”
“That’s right.”
“Okay. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.”
Speaker Novak: “You’re welcome. Any further discussion? Seeing none, the question is, ‘Shall House Bill 3739 pass?’ All those in favor vote ‘aye’; all those opposed vote ‘no’. Voting is open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Mr. Clerk, take the 09300060.doc 106 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 record. On this question, there are 87 voting ‘yes’, 29 voting ‘zero’… voting ‘no’, 0 voting ‘present’. And having reached the required Constitutional Majority, House Bill 3739 is hereby declared passed. Ms. Slone, for what reason do you rise?”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d just like to thank all the Members for their patience and Representative Myers and the other Members of the committee for their help in getting through this.”
Speaker Novak: “Thank you for your cooperation. Speaker Madigan in the Chair.”
“Mr. Clerk, what is the status of House Bill 3738?”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3738 is on the Order of House Bills-Second Reading. No Committee Amendments. Floor Amendment #1, offered by Representative Daniels, has been approved for consideration.”
“Mr. Daniels on the Amendment.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. Last night this House took a stand that we needed to improve the DHS budget. Working with Chairman… Chairperson Feigenholtz we’ve worked on an Amendment to House Bill 3738, Amendment which I now present to you. This Amendment becomes the Bill and its adds funding to the Department of Human Services budget, that’s 3788, as follows: 35 million is added for one dollar per hour wage increase for personal assistants in the Home Services Program; 34.6 million is added to the intermediate care 09300060.doc 107 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 facilities for persons with developmental disabilities line to bring this appropriation back to the ‘03 level; 19.5 million is added for a 2 percent COLA, cost of living adjustment, for the providers of services for individuals with developmental disabilities; 17 million is added to fund vacant slots in community integrated living arrangements for persons with developmental disabilities; 8.5 million is added for a 2 percent cost of living adjustment for providers of services for individuals with mental illness; 5 million is added to the home-based support program… services program; 2 million is added for supported employment, and 2 million is added for grants to special recreation associations. This total is $123.6 million added to the DHS budget. It is my understanding that after this Amendment is adopted we will have support on both sides of the aisle not only for this Bill but also for the DHS budget that the committee chaired by Representative Feigenholtz has worked on. I ask for your favorable support and will be willing to answer any questions you have.”
“Representative Feigenholtz.”
“Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I would like to make a couple comments about this Bill. Last night we heard from Representative Daniels about how he feels that what we put in the Bill that was on the floor… on the board last night that failed was inadequate. And my comments for him were that I agree that we could be doing better, unfortunately we haven’t got any money. However, I have 09300060.doc 108 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 stated to him that I, too, share the same goals and if there is a way we can move this Bill along with the Bill that is on Postponed Consideration forward we will continue to negotiate with the Governor’s Office and continue to negotiate with the Senate. So, I support this Bill, I understand what Representative Daniels wants to do, and encourage an ‘aye’ vote.”
“Representative Slone.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Gentleman yield?”
“Sponsor yields.”
“Representative Daniels, can you please tell me how much the total amount is of the different items that you listed?”
“I’d be happy to. I listed the items for you and I have a handout, which I’ll give to you if you would like…”
“Great.”
“…and it totals 123.6 million.”
“Thank you. And of the, I think you said approximately eight million that’s going to providers of services to the mentally ill…”
“8.5 million is added for a 2 percent cost of living adjustment for providers of services for individuals with mental illness.”
“Okay. So, that… is that for community-based mental health services and not for inpatient, is that correct?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Thank you.”
“Mr. Mitchell.” 09300060.doc 109 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 Mitchell, J.: “Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. Again, I applaud Representative Daniels for his attempt, I applaud Representative Feigenholtz for her understanding. These are the people that cannot fend for themselves. Like the kids in the State of Illinois, it is our duty to care for those folks that cannot do it themselves. We must find the funds to make sure that our most vulnerable population is taken care of. I applaud Lee Daniels and I certainly hope that everyone can join on this Bill. Thank you.”
“Representative Mulligan.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also rise in support of this and I thank Representative Feigenholtz for assisting in bringing this Bill to the floor. I know she supported the concept of it before Representative Daniels pointed it out once again, as I have in the past. Representative Coulson and I worked very hard on the 17 million to fund the vacant slots for community integrated living. There are approximately 250 slots available that we are not funding and we know, if you have any constituent services in your office that have worked with DD people, how valuable those slots are, that there are people waiting to take them if we could only fund them. All of the issues that are part of this Bill, the Amendment that becomes the Bill, are very important too, as some of the other Representatives pointed out, most vulnerable system and particularly in a system that is not adequately handling the community that we have. Also the fact that was pointed 09300060.doc 110 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 out by several people, and myself included in the past, that as of a study in the year 2000 by the University of Illinois, there are 28 thousand people that are developmentally disabled living with caregivers over the age of 60. It’s only going to go up and we have not made adequate places for what’s going to happen with those people when their caregivers are no longer around to protect them. So, I would urge an ‘aye’ vote on this Bill, because I think when we start looking at priorities if we have extra money in the budget or we start working on budget issues, this should be one of our top priorities.”
“On the Amendment, those in favor say ‘aye’; those opposed say ‘no’. The ‘ayes’ have it. The Amendment is adopted. Are there any further Amendments?”
“No further Amendments.”
“Third Reading. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill for a third time.”
Clerk Rossi: “House Bill 3738, a Bill for an Act making appropriations. Third Reading of this House Bill.”
“Mr. Daniels.”
“Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, you heard the outline of the legislation on Amendment #1. I, too, wanna thank the committee and particularly the Chairperson, Representative Feigenholtz, and our spokesperson, Representative Mulligan. But, Mr. Speaker, and many times in this House Floor, you and I have had intellectual and differences at times, I wanna personally thank you, Sir, because you help make this possible, you 09300060.doc 111 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 have shown a dedication to those people that are less fortunate, are vulnerable and we need help from… from this Assembly. But also, every Member of this House needs to be congratulated, too. The job is not over yet, this Bill will go to the Senate along with the DHS budget. It must be included in the final negotiations and the final budget in order to protect those people that are most vulnerable. I ask you to continue to work on this, continue to point out to your Senate colleagues and insist that this is part of the budget. Thank you all for all your help and support and for those on… behalf of those that are less vulnerable and need our assistance, they say thank you too. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I ask for your favorable support.”
“Mr. Aguilar.”
“Thank you very much. To the Bill. Just wanna… just wanna thank Representative Feigenholtz and Lee Daniels to reconsider this Bill. Like… there is a vulnerable community out there, disabled, and we… it should be one of our biggest priorities. So, I applaud both Representatives for their consideration. And thank you again, Lee Daniels and Representative Feigenholtz.”
“Question is, ‘Shall this Bill pass?’ Those in favor signify by voting ‘yes’; those opposed by voting ‘no’. The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 117 people voting ‘yes’, 0 voting ‘no’. This Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. On page 27 of the Calendar, on the Order of Consideration Postponed, there appears House Bill 3788. 09300060.doc 112 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 Mr. Clerk, put the Bill on the record. The Chair recognizes Representative Feigenholtz.”
“Mr. Clerk, could you please add Representatives Mulligan and Daniels to this Bill?”
Speaker Madigan: “Representative, do I understand correctly that this Bill was clearly debated last night?”
“I think it was.”
“And did you wanna open your remarks… your brief remarks?”
“Okay. Got the message there.”
“Yeah.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, I was debating this Bill yesterday, turned around and I saw the last row doing the wave, so I got the message last night, too. This is the Human Service budget that the Human Services Committee worked on in a bipartisan fashion, given the $5 billion hole that we’re suffering from. I think we all agree that if we had a lot more money we’d spend a lot more money and that the committee would’ve put that Bill out. We have two messages now that we are sending to the Senate that if there is an identified revenue stream we also wanna add in the COLAs and the wage increases that Representative Daniels has put in the Bill that we just passed. But we also need to have a vehicle in case that doesn’t happen and this is it. And so, I would appreciate the support of both the House Republicans as well as the House Democrats and appreciate an ‘aye’ vote.”
“Mr. Daniels.” 09300060.doc 113 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said earlier, I do support this Bill and wanna thank Representative Feigenholtz and Mulligan for their good work. Thank you.”
“The question is, ‘Shall this Bill pass?’ Those in favor signify by voting ‘yes’; those opposed by voting ‘no’. The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 113 people voting ‘yes’, 4 people voting ‘no’. This Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. On page 16 of the Calendar, on the Order of Senate Bills-Third Reading, there appears Senate Bill 1757. Representative Currie. 1757. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill for a third time.”
“Senate Bill 1757, a Bill for an Act concerning budget stabilization. Third Reading of this Senate Bill.”
“Thank you, Speaker and Members of the House. This is a proposal that comes to us from the state comptroller. The concept is simple, it’s a way to create a stabilization fund within our budget, a Rainy Day Fund if you will, that can help us when times are lean. The proposal suggests that if state revenues in a coming fiscal year are expected to be 4 percent more than they were in the last fiscal year, then you take one half of one percent of those revenues and you tuck ‘em away for a rainy day. If you have two years during which state revenues are expected to increase by 4 or more percent, then you take a full 1 percent and stash it away in your stabilization fund. Ultimately, some of those dollars could be used to pay off long-term debt and at the same time they would be available 09300060.doc 114 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 in case of emergencies, in case it really does rain, as for example it seems so to be doing during this fiscal year. I’d be happy to answer your questions and I hope you’ll join me in supporting this measure that is similar to what goes on in 45 of our sister states.”
“Mr. Lang.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Ladies and Gentlemen. I rise in support of this Bill. Ya know, for those who are freshman, you should know that this idea of a Rainy Day Fund has been around for some time and if we had passed this Bill when it was first talked about in the mid 90s, we wouldn’t be in the budget crisis we’re in today, if we had set aside money for a rainy day when we first started talking about this. We’d have lots of money available to us today. We wouldn’t have a $5 billion hole in our budget and we would be in a position today where we wouldn’t be having to threaten schools and senior citizens and people with mental illness and people with developmental disabilities and on down the line. So, it’s about time we started this process and about time we did the right thing. In a few years, when our financial condition stabilizes, if we try to pass this there will be those that say, well, we’re doing fine now we don’t need to do it. But let’s look ahead to the next downturn. And if we don’t start to think about a Rainy Day Fund now, in five years or ten years when the next cycle comes back we’ll be in the same position we’re in today. So, I think it’s critical that we pass this legislation, critical that we sign onto this program, and critical for 09300060.doc 115 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 our citizens that we plan for the future. Please vote ‘aye’.”
“The question is, ‘Shall this Bill pass?’ Those in favor signify by voting ‘yes’; those opposed by voting ‘no’. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? The Clerk shall take the record. On this question, there are 111 people voting ‘yes’, 6 people voting ‘no’. This Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Senate Bill 1759. Mr. Clerk, read the Bill.”
“Senate Bill 1759, a Bill for an Act concerning truth in budgeting. Third Reading of this Senate Bill.”
“Mr. Hannig.”
“Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker and Members of the House. This Bill also is an initiative of our Comptroller, Dan Hynes, and it would provide that we recognize in any fiscal year the total amount of liabilities that we actually intend to expend. So, we would be required by this Bill to put the annual appropriations of one or more lines into the actual Bill and to recognize them in the year that we’ve incurred them. The problem we’re trying to address is those cases in Medicaid which… the problem that we’re trying to address is the Medicaid expenditures which when they arrive in the Comptroller’s Office at a later date are allowed to be paid in the next fiscal year. That loophole that we put into the law to allow our providers to be paid has, unfortunately, in the past been used as a way to ‘cook the books’ and actually under recognize liability. So, 09300060.doc 116 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 this Bill provides a mechanism to provide more accountability and set up a system so that we can actually find out when someone in the Bureau of the Budget or the executive side should use intentional efforts to underestimate liability. So, this is an effort by the comptroller for full disclosure to cast more sunshine onto the budget process and to do away with the old type of system where we would simply not recognize liabilities in spite of the fact that we knew that they were there. So, I’d be happy to answer any questions and ask for your ‘yes’ vote.”
“Mr. Black.”
“Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor yields.”
“Representative, if I understand this, this will stop what we normally refer to as ‘lapse period spending’, correct?”
“It will not stop ‘lapse period spending’, but it will provide a mechanism where those Medicaid bills that normally go beyond the lapse period, they would still be paid, but they would be paid from a line in the budget that would recognize from which fiscal year they arose.”
“I think I heard you refer to stopping some of the, excuse me, stopping some of the methodology that we’ve used in the past where we simply cut off payments about May the 30, roll over unpaid bills until July and say, oh, we have a… we have a balanced budget.” 09300060.doc 117 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Well, actually, Representative, what happens is because we understand that sometimes our medical providers, nursing homes, hospitals, pharmacies will submit their bills and the process is long and it may actually arrive after the lapse period has ended. We have said, well, we’ll make an exception for those kind of bills and we’ll just pay ‘em out of the current fiscal year. But what’s happened though, is that now that’s opened up this opportunity oftentimes for the executive side to actually underestimate the amount of Medicaid bills that we would incur in any given fiscal year and consequently suggest that there’s more money available to spend than there really is. So, we’re trying to nail down the expenditure with the fiscal year. We’re trying to recognize those expenditures and force the Executive Branch and ourselves to recognize those expenditures in the year that we know they were actually incurred.”
“So one might refer to it as a truth in budgeting Act?”
“The truth in budgeting Act, that’s an excellent name, Representative.”
“Unfortunately, it won’t have much impact. I guess it’s the nature of government accounting that so often we see in the last 60 days of a fiscal year agencies say, oh my, look at the money I have left and they very quickly encumber it for a… things that have been done in the past by both parties, new desks, new equipment, that kind of stuff. This unfortunately won’t stop some of that.” 09300060.doc 118 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Well, the Governor has instituted some other methods that he’s going to do within his administration, like reserving the 2 percent and asking the agencies to come to him with… with appropriation on a quarterly basis. And so, I think, that there’s an effort by the new administration to try to address some of those problems that honestly do exist. But this Bill specifically addresses those… those Medicaid kind of problems that… that exist in the budget, Representative.”
“Representative, let me ask you a question just about the implementation. It has an immediate effective date. I would think that we would have to phase this in. I mean, we’re not gonna be able to implement this in the ‘04 budget, are we?”
“No, I believe that it actually has an immediate effective date, but it takes effect with the ‘05 budget.”
“’05-‘06?”
“’05 and there on. Yes.”
“Okay. Fine. All right. That’s… that’s the only questions I had. So, they’ll be time to… because we’re gonna have to change some of the ways that we hear testimony and act on appropriations Bills if we’re gonna meet the full intent of this law.”
“Yeah, because this Bill would probably be signed after this year’s budget Bills, so…”
“Right.”
“…so we really can’t…”
“Well, we can…” 09300060.doc 119 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“…impact this… this Bill cannot impact the ‘04 budget that we’re debating and just debated, but it can on ‘05.”
“Well, Representative, I hope that your statement reflects your optimism that… that this year’s budget will be completed before this Bill goes into effect.”
“Let’s hope.”
“I’m gonna hold you to that. Thank you.”
“Representative Mulligan.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?”
“Sponsor yields.”
“Representative Hannig, I’d just like a little more detailed explanation. Now, is this supposed to go into effect for fiscal year ‘06?”
“It will be in effect at, I think, in fiscal year 0… I’m sorry, I… I… it is, Representative Black, I think told ‘05, but you’re correct it’s fiscal year ‘06…”
“Okay. And…”
“…and then there after.”
“And then in fiscal year ‘06 what we would have is a line item in the budget, I just wanna make sure where we’re putting it, a line item in the budget that says all the FY05 bills that are ‘lapse period spending’ or bills that are incurred by the end of June 30 in FY05, but won’t be turned in so that we don’t know exactly the amount, are gonna be paid in FY06 which we normally do. But in FY06 we will be obligated to make a strong guesstimate of what they’re gonna be and include it in the FY06 budget as a line item that shows we will pay those debts incurred at 09300060.doc 120 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 the end of FY05, that don’t come due until FY06, in the FY06 budget.”
“Yeah, so… yeah, that… in the ‘06 budget, they’ll be lines so that we can pay, as we go forward in the ‘06 budget, those primarily Medicaid bills that show up that actually belong to ‘05.”
“Right. And that’s how it will be designated. So, it… it is our obligation, the budgeteers’ obligation and the Governor’s Office and the Bureau of the Budget to come up with a strong guesstimate, probably predicated on past histories…”
“Yeah.”
“…and the substance of how much we’ve been having… going over that year, to say that those bills will actually be recognized as FY0… obliga… FY05 obligations that are meant in FY06, but were incurred in FY05.”
“Yes, Representative, that… that’s the real key, that we now have to recognize that these obligations exist and put the line item into the budget. No more can we just say, well we don’t know what they are and we’ll just push ‘em into the next fiscal year and we won’t count ‘em this year. So, it actually makes us more accountable and… and in the long run it makes the process work better.”
“All right. So, it still complies with a balanced budget because we’re actually not paying them until that year, but they were incurred in the previous year, but we’re actually designating them in a line item so they show 09300060.doc 121 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 up and that the public understands and the General Assembly understands where the money… why the money is being spent.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear the last part of your question.”
“I said, what we’re doing is we’re actually acknowledging them in an amount so that the public and the General Assembly can see in the budget and it’s not… it’s less abstract of how that money is being spent.”
“Yeah, that’s… that’s… that’s absolutely right. Ya know, today what we do is we just push off this payment cycle. There’s no where in the budget that says we’re not gonna pay our bills on time, but that’s what we do. This would make us recognize those expenditures in the fiscal year in which we anticipate that they would come in, so we would put the line in the budget.”
“We do it anyway, it’s just that we guess at it and then we kinda push it around right now. And so…”
“Well, it allows someone, if they wish to ‘cook the books’, to intentionally underestimate your Medicaid expenditures and pretend you have more money to spend in other areas knowing full well when those bills come in under today’s law we’ll just push ‘em into the next fiscal year to be paid. This would… this would try to end that… this would end that process.”
“All right. And then one other question. What would happen if we put in a line item for $2 million and it turns out to be 2.5 million. Would we then have to do a supplemental to cover the other five? How will we account 09300060.doc 122 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 for it, because it will not be in a line item? Will we always have to overestimate what those bills are gonna be because we’ll have a line item now?”
“Well, Representative, I think that’s… you’re exactly right. What we would have to do is we would have to do a supplemental appropriation and then at that point we would ask the Bureau of the Budget to come in and explain to us why it was that their estimates were incorrect. Now, it could be that they have a very legitimate reason, but we certainly then would have the opportunity to try to determine in our own minds whether or not that there was any kind of mischief going on by the administration.”
“All right, but would that keep those bills from being paid?”
“It… it potentially could, Representative, but we are in a position where, ya know, we’re in Session a good part the year off and on and we can do a supplemental when we’re in Session.”
“All right. Conversely, if we put in $2 million in that line item and it turns out we only have $1.5 million, what would happen with the other $5 million or $500 thousand rather, that would be sitting here? Would be allow… would we roll it over into next year’s lapse spending?”
“Yes.”
“Or would we be allowed to use it for something else?” 09300060.doc 123 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Well, and just to finish addressing your first point. We do have some flexibility with the transfer abilities to find additional money, but we would know about that as far as if we came up short. But yes, money would lapse if we don’t spend it in any given line.”
“All right. So, then it would sit there and then we would have to roll it over into the next year or…”
“Well, it would…”
“…would we be able…”
“…it would simply lapse at the end of the fiscal year unless we anticipated that there would still be some outstanding debts then we could… then we could reapprop it to the next year.”
“So we could have half a million sitting there all year long that we couldn’t access because we… I mean, if that behooves us to be almost right on the money with the guesstimate of what we’re gonna spend. So, I’m just wondering how we’re gonna adjust if…”
“The…”
“…we’re over or under.”
“You have up to two years to present a bill under Medicaid and so consequently we’ll need to have lines there for that period of time.”
“All right, I understand that.”
“ but… but those lines will grow smaller as time goes by, as you well would expect and eventually would extinguish themselves. But this wouldn’t tie up any cash in the bank, but it would… it would make us recognize on 09300060.doc 124 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 the books those obligations that we actually incur in a given fiscal year.”
“All right. I think… I think this is a good idea because it adequately reflects to both, the Members, who sometimes don’t watch ‘lapse period spending’ until it hits us, and to the public, of what we’re actually spending and where the money’s going. My only concern was with the logistics of it and I think you’ve answered that.”
“Mr. Hannig to close.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Members of the House. This Bill will bring more accountability to the budget process, it will shine more light on the process, it will make more information available and it will provide a more truthful method of disseminating the information on the budget to anyone who’s interested in reviewing the documents. So, it’s a very important step in the right direction. I applaud the comptroller for his good work in the area. I’d ask for your ‘yes’ vote.”
Speaker Madigan: “The question is, ‘Shall this Bill pass?’ Those in favor signify by voting ‘yes’; those opposed by voting ‘no’. Have all voted who wish? Mr. Schmitz. Mr. Clerk, take the record. On this question, there are 117 people voting ‘yes’, 0 voting ‘no’. This Bill, having received a Constitutional Majority, is hereby declared passed. Mr. Clerk, what is the status of Senate Bill 24? Senate 24.”
Clerk Rossi: “Senate Bill 24 is on the Order of Senate Bill-Third Reading.” 09300060.doc 125 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Put the Bill on the Order of Second Reading. What is the status of Senate Bill 487? 487.”
“Senate Bill 487 has been read a second time, previously. Amendment #1 was adopted in committee. No Motions have been filed. Floor Amendment #2, offered by Representative Saviano, has been approved for consideration.”
“Is Mr. Saviano in the chamber? Mr. Saviano. I think the Bill must remain on the Order of Second Reading. Mr. Saviano.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Members of the House. Floor Amendment #…”
“Mr. Saviano, I’ve been advised that staff needs more time to work on…”
“Okay.”
“…Amendments. So, we’ll leave the Bill on the Order of Second Reading. Mr. Clerk, what is the status of Senate Bill 1527? 1527.”
Clerk Bolin: “Senate Bill 1527 is on the Order of Senate Bills-Third Reading.”
“Put the Bill on the Order of Second Reading. What is the status of Senate Bill 1869?”
Clerk Bolin: “Senate Bill 1869 is on the Order of Senate Bills-Third Reading.”
“Put the Bill on the Order of Second Reading. What is the status of Senate Bill 1493?”
Clerk Bolin: “Senate Bill 1493 is on the Order of Senate Bills-Third Reading.” 09300060.doc 126 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003
“Put the Bill on the Order of Second Reading. Mr. Washington. Mr. Washington. Mr. Washington.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was going to make a request of the Body if they would join me in a moment of silence. Some of my constituents’ families were some of the people that died, immigrants, that appeared in Thursday, May the 16, Chicago Sun Times, and also today’s paper. And I just wanna say that it is a very humbling thing to know the problem we face here in the state and in America, but there are people who would risk their life to cross over to something better, and that’s not a crime. But for those people to be locked up in the back of a semi truck to get here, to try to do something different with their lives and their family. Such a very, very tragic loss and I ask this Body to join me and to be mindful that in spite of all the so many wrong things, there are so many right things that we have to be grateful for and shouldn’t take for granted. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Sir. Thank you, too.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, Bills on the Calendar with a deadline of today will be extended to Friday, May 23. Let me repeat. Bills on the Calendar with a deadline of today will be extended to Friday, May 23. Mr. Clerk, Agreed Resolutions.”
Clerk Bolin: “Agreed Resolutions. House Resolution 299, offered by Representative Bill Mitchell. House Resolution 300, offered by Representative Bill Mitchell. House Resolution 301, offered by Representative Washington. 09300060.doc 127 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 House Resolution 302, offered by Representative Madigan. House Resolution 303, offered by Representative Granberg. House Resolution 308, offered by Representative Feigenholtz. House Resolution 310, offered by Representative Joyce. House Resolution 312, offered by Representative Yarbrough. House Resolution 313, offered by Representative Joyce. House Resolution 314, offered by Representative Stephens. House Resolution 315, offered by Representative Stephens. House Resolution 316, offered by Representative Stephens. House Resolution 317, offered by Representative Dunkin. House Resolution 318, offered by Representative Novak. House Resolution 319, offered by Representative McGuire. House Resolution 320, offered by Representative Yarbrough. House Resolution 321, offered by Representative Eddy. House Resolution 322, offered by Representative Colvin. House Resolution 323, offered by Representative Parke. House Resolution 326, offered by Representative McGuire. And House Resolution 328, offered by Representative Myers.”
“The Clerk has read the Agreed Resolutions. Those in favor say ‘aye’; those opposed say ‘no’. The ‘ayes’ have it. The Agreed Resolutions are adopted. The Chair recognizes Mr. Rose. Mr. Rose.”
“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Point of personal privilege.”
“State your point.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, for all of those who you’ve laughed, this weekend is Raggedy Ann and Andy Festival in my district. They’re expecting 30 thousand 09300060.doc 128 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 people to Arcola, Illinois, this weekend and you are all invited as my guest to come down Saturday and Sunday. You’re welcome to walk in the parade with me tomorrow at 3:00, if you’d like to. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. ”
“Mr. Clerk, the Adjournment Resolution.”
Clerk Bolin: “House Joint Resolution 37, offered by Representative Currie. RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that when the House of Representatives adjourns on Friday, May 16, 2003, it stands adjourned until Tuesday, May 20, 2003 at 1:00 p.m.; and when the Senate adjourns on Friday, May 16, 2003, it stands adjourned until Monday, May 19, 2003 at 4:00 p.m.”
“Representative Currie moves for the adoption of the Adjournment Resolution. Those in favor say ‘aye’; those opposed say ‘no’. The ‘ayes’ have it. The Adjournment Resolution is adopted. There being nothing further, Representative Currie moves that the House stand adjourned ‘til Tuesday, May 20 at 1 p.m. Those in favor say ‘aye’; those opposed say ‘no’. The ‘ayes’ have it. The House does stand adjourned ‘til Tuesday, May 20, 1 p.m., providing perfunctory time for the Clerk.”
“The House Perfunctory Session will come to order. Introduction of Resolutions. House Resolution 324, offered by Representative Osmond. House Resolution 325, offered by Representative Leitch. And House Joint Resolution 36, offered by Representative Verschoore. These Resolutions 09300060.doc 129 STATE OF ILLINOIS 93rd GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 60th Legislative Day 5/16/2003 are referred to the House Rules Committee. There being no further business, the House Perfunctory Session will stand adjourned.” 09300060.doc 130