Illinois House Floor Debate — August 1, 2007

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Floor Amendment #2 becomes the Bill and amends it to relate to the Early Intervention Systems Act. And I'd appreciate an 'aye' vote."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Representative Hannig, is the intention that this is a shell Bill and that the Senate will drop in some type of appropriation budget Bill and it would come back to us for a final look?"

"Representative, I think the goal of all of us is to finish a budget that is reasonable for the people of 09500106.doc 3  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 106th Legislative Day 8/1/2007 Illinois and be out of here and get ready for the next Session. My only concern is, and I will voice it now because I would hope that this will be a consideration, I have not heard really good things going on on the other side with the Human Service appropriation budget. My concern is that because there isn't as much new money as the Governor predicted there would be and the desire of many to fund education, that Human Services, which is normally a large budget, is kind of being decimated to move money into education. I would hope that any Bill that comes back here that both Representative Feigenholtz and myself could take a look at and make sure the Human Service appropriations is being treated fairly and that many of the constituents that we've represented for a long time will not have their budgets cut where they can no longer function without a supplemental in the middle of the year or something bad happening. So, although I agree with the idea of passing the Bill over because there aren't enough vehicles and we need to hopefully get moving on this, I would like to voice those concerns on the record and hope that everyone will take a look at what happens ultimately."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Representative, I'm confused as the intent of this shell Bill."

"Is it your intent that it go to the Senate and then come back to us Friday in the form of another 30-day budget or the potential for a 12-month budget?"

"Well, that would be a wonderful thing to do since we're already in the second month of the fiscal year. It'd be nice if we could maybe get a 12-month budget fixed before December. So, I just want a clarification on where we were headed. Another 30-day budget, while it may be necessary if we can't reach an agreement, that doesn't solve the problem."

"A 12-month budget solves the problem."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Will the Sponsor yield?"

"Representative, the point has already been made, but on the record just to make sure we understand the intent, would it… would it be fair to characterize support for this as the support for the concept and possibly not the final Bill?"

"And… and some of the real pressure dates that've been noted regarding the distribution of state aid if an August 8 or 9 deadline isn't met then the possibility of those funds being processed in a timely fashion, the school districts might be impaired. This is more of being able to move the process so that if a… an agreement can be made that those target dates will be honored and the money would be there in time."

"This… this isn't a vote on the rumors or the… or the possibilities or where the revenue is coming from or the dollar amounts or the millions for this. This is… this is a vote for having a vehicle available for a movement…" 09500106.doc 6  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 106th Legislative Day 8/1/2007

"…in time should that occur. And on that basis, I intend to support it based on the idea that this is a concept, but obviously, whatever the final version of this that may come back, if it doesn't contain the education or the human services that we would feel are adequate or are agreed upon, we obviously would take a different vote at that time."

“Okay."

“Right."

"Thank you very much."

"Inquiry of the chair. Will this take 71 votes to pass?"

"Thank you."

"Mr. Speaker, I had the inquiry of the Chair. I thought the Chair was wrong on the number of votes. I don't know why this shell Bill had an effective date in it, but the effective date has passed. Therefore, the only effective date can be immediate. Therefore, under the House Rules it requires 71 votes, which you have ruled. Correct?"

"I don't even have a cell phone. We don't have any towers downstate."

"All right."

"Yes, Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. House Resolution 535 is proclaiming Adlai Stevenson Day on February 5 in State of Illinois."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. 577 just verily simply states that the State of Illinois should include it in their budget the veterans' tuition. This has been done up to about two (2) years ago. And what it does, it encourages the passage of Bill Black's House Bill 479. Right now, it's sitting in… in a Senate… in the Rules Committee. And I will answer any questions."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. House Resolution 602 urges the U.S. Congress to support and pass the Great Lakes Water Protection Act in an effort to clean up the Great Lakes."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was just last week that my predecessor and dear friend of thirty (30) years died in a tragic accident on his family farm. There was an outpouring for support for Jay Ackerman. The hundreds who attended his wake, the many hundreds at his funeral. It was an unusual funeral. In my area, a funeral may last thirty (30) minutes, but if it's an extraordinary mass, it may be an hour. This funeral ran for two (2) hours. Each and every one of his grandchildren stood and spoke about their grandfather. And a number of us in the community had the opportunity to stand up and talk of this fine gentleman and 09500106.doc 16  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 106th Legislative Day 8/1/2007 share stories. For, in fact, it was a celebration of his life. This weekend I remember one of the news commentators saying… he just summed it up, Jay was a good ol' farm boy. As the Resolution said, Jay began his quest for fame in softball by pitching against the barn door. According to his older sister, he'd stand out there hour after hour and day after day throwing that fast softball. He pitched for forty (40) years throughout central Illinois and really that was the foundation of his political service, because so many people got to know him, not just as a pitcher but for… as a fine individual. But it was from, as the Resolution cites, his involvement with softball that he ran for a seat on the park board to give others the opportunity to participate in softball and recreation. There were no such facilities in our hometown, oh, a pretty rough ball diamond at the high school. Not only did Jay Ackerman run for that board and win, he saw to it that the first field was built. They had a plot of ground; they didn't have any money, so he and his farmer friends had got together and built a ball diamond with their farm equipment. That's the kind of person Jay Ackerman was. He had no further ambitions, but he was sought out by the community to run for county board, to serve, because everyone knew that he put others before himself and he just did what was right. Then the opportunity came in 1977 for someone to run for State Representative in our area and people approached Jay. I'm proud to say that he said, yeah, that he would run if I'd be his campaign manager, a task I took upon myself and did so for many, many years. Jay came to Springfield. You won't… 09500106.doc 17  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 106th Legislative Day 8/1/2007 those of you who are here remember Jay as one who sponsored outstanding legislation, one who took the floor and spoke often. But to remember him as a decent person, a team player, he was a star on the ball diamond, but he… he wasn't the star here. He knew that. He fulfilled his role, he was a farmer. So, on Agriculture Committee he spoke about ag issues and about land use and the property rights. And he was particularly interested in recreational opportunities, not only for the young but for everyone in this state and he promoted efforts so that Department of Conservation at that time and DNR to provide those opportunities to all the citizens of Illinois. He was a guy that had fun. Well, no, he was a guy who was fun. We're all admonished in our life to enjoy life and have fun. This man was fun, just being around him. You had fun because he was fun, whether it was on the ball diamond or here in the chamber or after hours or at a movie. Whatever, he was fun. When Jay came here he sat down there in that front row where Don Moffitt and Sid Mathias are right now. And they called it 'farmer's row'. Sitting down there were Jay Ackerman, his dear friend from McLean County, Gordy Ropp, who became director of Agriculture and this young whipper snapper from northern Illinois, Ron Wait, and they were 'farmer's row'. I just can't help but think that if Jay were yet here today he'd probably lean back and maybe elbow Ron Wait and say 'Ron, the real world's back home.' Jay never forgot that and the people back home never forgot Jay Ackerman, he always put them first. He always lived up to his responsibility to and for them and put it above any ambition he had. I'm lucky 09500106.doc 18  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 106th Legislative Day 8/1/2007 and some of you who were here during his tenure were lucky, too, we were lucky that we could call him our dear friend."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to express my appreciation and my respect for the life and service of our dear friend Jay Ackerman. As Representative Sommer described this was a very unique funeral which in so many ways reflected the uniqueness and the love felt in the community for Jay Ackerman. As Representative Sommer indicated it was a very lengthy funeral in the sense of the time on a clock but the feelings of love and the feelings that were pouring out from Representative Sommer, who spoke very eloquently, as well as others who told some of the funniest stories that one will ever hear and knowing Jay we all knew that they were true. And so I don't believe ever in my life have I ever been in a funeral… in a funeral where there was so much humor and so many true stories and everyone had these stories. From all walks of life in that community there were very, very funny Jay Ackerman stories but then at the same time was the grief and the love expressed by his grandchildren and by his family and the others who know him. Jay was a very unique individual and one who was admired by so many in his district. As Representative Sommer made reference he was not and made no attempt to be a star here and many were often confused here as to how Representative Sommer (sic-Representative Ackerman) could be so popular, so respected and continually get reelected by such margins in his district. And the 09500106.doc 19  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 106th Legislative Day 8/1/2007 answer really is quite a simple one, Jay was what he was. He was a simple, wonderful farmer, community servant, a person who loved and was devoted to his family, his church and who, above all, represented and reflected that district. His district didn't want him to come and pass Bill after Bill. His district respected the fact that they wanted to be, above all, left alone. So, it will be a long time before many of us who had the honor of serving with Jay Ackerman forget Jay Ackerman's example of devotion to family, community and to our state. Thank you Mr. Speaker."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ladies and Gentlemen of the House, it was my honor and privilege to serve with Jay and as was mentioned here I got to sit in the front row when I was a freshman, in fact I sat there I believe it was ten (10) years in the center there, on the left of me was Jay and on the right was Gordy Ropp and yeah, we called it 'farmer row' and we got to visit a lot about farming just like Rich and Raymond and I do back here. But Jay was just a, ya know, ordinary simple person; a farmer, I guess kind of like myself, didn't get up and speak too much because we learned that we don't need a lot more laws on the books, we just want to put common sense in government and try to help people. I couldn't believe the… the visitation we had, I mean they were there five (5), six (6) hours on Thursday night and then I went back to the funeral on Friday. And as you heard about the funeral, I've never been to such a humorous funeral, but I think that's the way Jay would have wanted it to be, because Jay really had a zest and a thrill 09500106.doc 20  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 106th Legislative Day 8/1/2007 for life. And one of… one of the things they mentioned there, I knew he was a good pitcher but he had a 2.14 strike out record per inning. That means he struck out about twenty (20) people out of twenty-seven (27) batters every game. I mean that's what I understand is phenomenal in baseball. One of the things that Keith mentioned during the memorial was about how that he was truly a friend, a farmer, family and fun and all of those he really did a fantastic job. One of the things I just want to mention, Gordy Ropp got there with a driver and as Paul Harvey said 'let me tell you the rest of the story', I heard part of the story at the funeral, but then I heard the rest of it yesterday. Was… they were playing golf at The Rail and Jay got up there and hit the ball, but I guess he scuffed it or something and the next thing you know he threw the driver in the pond. Well, anyway, then they got through playing that day and they gave him a new driver, but knowing as frugal and as conservative as Jay is, he wasn't gonna let that driver go away. So at the end of the function, he took off his shirt and his pants and went into the pond, not only did he get about thirty (30) or forty (40) golf balls, he found a dri… he found a putter but he also got the driver back, but what I found out talking with former Representative Jim Rea yesterday, you know why he really went back to get the driver, because it was his son-in-law's new driver and that's why he couldn't go home without it. So, anyway, that's just a little of the humorous stories that were told at his funeral. But I just want to say in closing that our thoughts and prayers are with Joann and her whole family and we're certainly going to 09500106.doc 21  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 106th Legislative Day 8/1/2007 miss Jay because he certainly was a wonderful, wonderful Legislator, a family person and we're gonna miss him. Thank you."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Members of the House. There's very little I can add except what a good and decent man Jay Ackerman was and how much fun he was to be around. And in the last few weeks, I don't think I'm the only Member of the House that has said, if you've been here a while, it isn't as much fun as it used to be. I'm not sure I know why that is, well, as I sit here on the first of August, I have an idea, but when people like Jay Ackerman were here, it… you couldn't help but have fun. He had a remarkable sense of humor and probably had more common sense in his little finger than many Members of this chamber, and no insult is intended, will ever have. He was a hardworking man all his life, he loved agriculture and farming and he often remarked that when he came down here in the '70s, the mid-'70s, he could carry the statute books back to his office in the Stratton Building if he wanted to, if he wanted to look up something and then he'd wink at me and he said, 'I use them as paperweights. I don't think I've ever looked up anything in the statute book, don't even know how and don't want to learn.' But when he left he said, 'You know, you can no longer do that. You can't pick up the statute books and carry them back to your office.' He said, 'I doubt that you can even pick them up and carry them to somebody else's desk, unless you have a hernia protection belt on.' And 09500106.doc 22  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 106th Legislative Day 8/1/2007 that kind of summed up Jay's philosophy. 'Do we really need all of these laws?', he would often ask, and he had a lot of great downstate expressions that never did really catch on with some people. He would try to explain it. He loved that pond, but if you've lived along an interstate being constructed and you owned ground, you don’t call it a pond, it's a borrow pit. And I remember one time we went to Jay's farm and former Leader Lee Daniels was with us and he kept asking Jay, 'Why do you call it a borrow pit? I don't understand that. You mean, like a wheelbarrow or wheelborrow?' Jay finally said, 'No, it's what's called a 'borrow pit' because when they built the interstate the contactors come by and offer you some slight renumeration (sic-remuneration), to Jay it was always slight renumeration (sic-remuneration). They would dig out dirt from your ground and move the dirt to make an overpass. So you would borrow the dirt from Jay's farm to build the abutment for the overpass and then it filled with water and it belonged to the landowner, in this case Jay, so it was a 'borrow pit'. And some of the stories he used to tell about trying to keep various critters out of the borrow pit were immensely funny. Not many people were ever attacked by geese, Jay was. He said if he hadn't run out of ammunition he wouldn't have been attacked by the geese, but he didn't take enough shells. I wonder sometimes, in some of the debates we've had, some of the common sense that Jay could bring to certain Bills that we've discussed over the last few years. He had a deep appreciation and understanding and love for farming because he always used to tell me, 'sitting 09500106.doc 23  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 106th Legislative Day 8/1/2007 next to Ron Wait makes you realize that if there were no farmers producing food Ron Wait wouldn't last a week.' In fact, one day… and another Gentleman who made this place a lot of fun… the late Representative Myron Olson from Dixon, who was one of the greatest practical jokers I've ever, ever been privileged to know, got several of us together and said, 'I want ten (10) bucks from each of you.' What for? 'Just give me ten (10) bucks and you'll find out.' This is when we had Pages when we were here in June and we had that could drive and we pooled our money and they were given instructions that every hour they were to go to a Dairy Queen, I don't remember even where it was, and bring back two Blizzards, one for Ron Wait and one for Jay Ackerman, not… and when they asked who it was from, they didn't know. And so Myron said, 'I'll bet you that Jay can go through five (5), but Ron Wait can go through ten (10).' So we had some side wagers and it was funny because when the Pages would deliver the Blizzards they would both look around to see who had delivered those, nobody would pay any attention to that, we would look the other way. Myron lost his bet that day, Jay only got through two (2), and I hope I don't embarrass Ron, but Ron… Ron would look around and finally would… you… you could tell he would look over to Jay and say, 'Jay, are you going to eat that?' and Jay would say, 'No, I've had all I can.' So Jay would take that… or Ron would take that one too. And I think before that joke was over Ron Wait had gone through about fourteen (14) Blizzards. The next week Myron Olson decided we would have a weight losing contest and when you weighed in you would 09500106.doc 24  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 106th Legislative Day 8/1/2007 each put in twenty dollars ($20) and whoever lost the biggest amount of weight would get the twenty dollars ($20) and I think there were about twelve (12) or fifteen (15) of us in that group. And Ron Wait weighed in nurse, I think Dorothy was her name at that time, and everybody weighed and we were all a little heavy, but Dorothy, when Ron got on the scale said, 'Representative, you might want to take of your shoes and your watch', and as Myron said, 'and especially your billfold and whatever else you can take off because you want to be as light as possible.' Well, Ron still came in to be the heaviest among the weight loss group but for the next two (2) weeks there were no Blizzards, no snacks, no food wrappers in the back of his car, so when we weighed in and Myron Olson, to show you what a jokester he was, Myron shows up in a hospital gown tied in the back with a pair of boxer shorts and I said, 'Well, that's not fair, we didn't weigh in that way and Ron was in there and Ron said 'well, what happened?' Myron said 'well, I stay at a certain motel', which is still here I won't mention the name, and he said 'well, I was robbed last night; they took everything. They took my shoes; they took all my clothes. I was left with the boxers I was in, this is it. The police were kind enough to get me this hospital gown so, you know, I'm here, I'm gonna weigh in.' Well, I… I thought, boy, that was terrible, you know, he could have gotten hurt. Ron, on the other hand, you know, got rid of his watch and billfold and shoes and stepped on the scale. Ron ended up winning and Myron was not happy about that and about five (5) minutes later Myron came out into the chamber, Ron was counting his 09500106.doc 25  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 106th Legislative Day 8/1/2007 money and Jay said, 'Where'd Myron get a suit, where did he get shoes, tie, everything? He's got everything on.' So Jay and I went over and said, 'Myron, how could you have gotten a suit that fits and all of that material… and all of that stuff in such a short period of time?' And Myron looked at us and looked at Jay… looked at Jay and said, 'Jay, I'm gonna tell you something. The Springfield Police Department, I've never seen them any better, they found all my clothes about five (5) minutes ago and brought them up to the nurse's office.' So, it finally dawned on us that he had not had his clothes stolen at all. And one last Jay Ackerman story. We were sitting together one afternoon and debate was going long, and I don't remember the issue, but Jay would often say, 'You know, some of this philosophical debate just doesn't really get to the matter at hand' and he had a down home saying and I'll never forget it and I've used it once or twice myself. He said, 'You know something, Bill, where I come from and down on the farm you gotta put the hay down where the goats can eat it.' And I grew up around my uncle who farmed and I said now that's one I haven't heard, you gotta put the hay down where the goats can eat it. He says if you don't… all this philosophical lingo way up here, if the goats can't reach it, and we were the goats, and you don't understand it, and you can't eat it, why would you pass it? He said put it down there the goats can eat it, put it in plain language and I'll vote for it and we could always count on Jay on days like today and days like we've had in the last month when forty-eight (48) people felt that they had to speak on some Resolution that 09500106.doc 26  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 106th Legislative Day 8/1/2007 ended up getting 118 votes, we could always count on Jay Ackerman to be recognized and say, 'Mr. Speaker, I move the previous question', what a remarkable man. To Joann and his family, my deepest condolences. Jay, I owe you an apology for not attending your wake or your funeral, I know you'll forgive me, I'm not sure I'll forgive myself for a while but having worked with you I know you would say, 'if you had business to do in Springfield, Bill, that's where you should have been.' But the problem is Jay, I'm sure you're looking down and saying, 'what you're doing there is not business. You're not putting the hay down where the goats can eat it', and sometimes you need people like Jay Ackerman to remind you that what we often do here isn't brain surgery or rocket scientist, maybe our constituents would be better off if it were. He never had an ego, he never had personality problems with anybody and maybe there's a lesson in that for all of us, if we could just borrow some of Jay Ackerman's common sense, put our egos on the back shelf, stop the posturing, stop the bickering and get down to work and pass a budget that's the best we can do for the people of Illinois and as Jay Ackerman would say, 'get it done and go home.' God bless you, Jay."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, had the honor and privilege of serving with Jay Ackerman and spent many an evening attending events with him and always sought him out he was… I always referred to him as a walking encyclopedia, not that he carried books or files with him but he had just 09500106.doc 27  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 106th Legislative Day 8/1/2007 soaked up information. He had tremendous institutional knowledge. And it is a loss and certainly our condolences go to the family. Recently, a national candidate used a campaign slogan, the straight talk express. Well, that's what Jay Ackerman's whole life was, was just straight talk, plain talk, to the point as some have said. He was a no nonsense kind of a guy. When Jay came down here… a lot of people'll get elected and they come down here and they become a different person. The General Assembly did not change Jay, but I'll have to say Jay helped to change the General Assembly. The State of Illinois would be a better state if we had more people that had the characteristics of Jay. When it came to honesty, integrity and service Jay Ackerman set the bar very, very high. It's already been mentioned on… when we had the Majority he would move the previous question at an appropriate time. That was his frequent call to duty there at that point. Politicians have a tendency too talk to long and be very verbose, I attended one of his campaign fund raisers and printed right on that campaign invitation, inviting you all to come, but in biggest letters on that invitation it said 'no speeches', and that was Jay Ackerman. They didn't need him there to make speeches. His life, his word, his integrity, his character spoke volumes beyond what any speech could. We're a better state because we had the example that Jay Ackerman set. I'm thankful I had the privilege of serving with him, sitting in the basic area where he sat. We're gonna miss him, but we thank him for what he did and we appreciate his service. God bless Jay Ackerman. God bless his family." 09500106.doc 28  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE 106th Legislative Day 8/1/2007

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to announce that the Republicans will have a caucus immediately following our adjournment in Room 118, prior to committees. The Republican Caucus in Room 118 immediately upon adjournment, prior to committees. Thank you."